



'^'^ ^ 



' H 







THE SHAFTESBURY SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY 



KNOWN AS THE STORY OF 



O^R ;0Ai5TnNcna 



The Doctrine of Diversity 



EDMUND SHAFTESBUFIY ':£ d^CiiJA^/i^ , Ww>t^ 



^ -^ HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY ^ ^ 

A STUDY OF \ ,' 

What We Are ° ° ° Where We Are 

Our Origin and Destiny . / 



In one volume of Ten Tomes; containing five hundred General Problems: 

one hundred Major Problems^ one thousand Lessons; and 

numberless Suggestions, Queries and 

Propositions 



SHAFTESBURY COLLEGE 
Washington, D. C. 



(Lo^o^ 



.^/.^ 






C/6?^' 



Copyrighted 1893 

BY 

SHAFTESBURY COLLEGE 
All rights reserved 

copy'righted 1894 

BY 

SHAFTESBURY COLLEGE 
All rights reserved 



/2-dZ0'/6 



TOME ONE. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS 



INTRODUCTION. 

The earliest and the latest studies of mankind are in philosophy. The 
only real student, and the only complete man, is the philosopher. Non- 
education is not a bar to philosophy; while education is often a help. 
Nature and instinctive thought are greater instructors than universities. 

In view of these facts we publish this course of study in such a way 
as to stimulate the deepest original thinking on the part of our home pupils. 

PHILOSOPHY. 
The Shaftesbury System of Philosophy is so comprehensive that much 
is left to the life study of each pupil. In the years to come the deeper 
problems will receive profound attention, and the philosophical mind will 
obtain surer hold upon the simple mysteries which overwhelm man. 

THE PHILOSOPHER. 
The philosopher is the wise man. He thinks much ; writes some ; talks 
less. He loves Nature, children and simplicity. He gradually withdraws 
from the artificial world, and turns to art, and becomes artless. He scents 
the perfume of the flowers, listens to the music of the trees and brooks, 
watches the drifting skies, and is lost in the perspective of the stars. He is 
happy because he is not artificial. His temper is sweet because he is philo- 
sophical. His stature is grand, because he is growing heavenward. 

OPPORTUNITY. 
The great need of the day is an opportunity for study at home. The 
majority of men cannot go away to college, they may and should be given the 
privilege of self-education ; for, in many instances they are endowed with 
gifts of mind, which, when favored by circumstances, are sure to place them 
among the great men of the world. The majority of the mighty geniuses 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY- TOME ONE. 



of the earth, like Shakespeare, never attended university or college. The 
Shaftesbury College seeks to open the way to all men and women of ambition, 
who wish to receive a thorough education. To maintain the standard of our 
course we ask all our pupils to study faithfully, patiently, persistently and 
not to complain if some of the way is hard. 

HOME-COUESES OF STUDY. 
One of the movements of the age in the line of education is the estab- 
lishment of schools by correspondence, under the auspices of prominent 
institutions and backed by the most learned men. There is hardly a pro- 
fession which is not represented in this movement. Previous to this inno- 
vation it was impossible for the vast majority of ambitious young men to 
obtain the kind and degree of education they desired. Even if they were 
able to save the money necessary to pay for the instruction, the cost of 
board, time and travel completely barred them. A "home course," or 
education by correspondence, is an undoubted blessing. It enables the pupil 
to study, without giving up his work ; the merchant to attend college with- 
out leaving his store, the professional man to retain his position, or practice 
his profession, while delving into those problems which furnish ideas and 
material for the very work in which he is engaged. 

THE SHAFTESBUEY HOME-COUESE. 

It is true that the study of Philosophy is higher, grander, and more 
beneficial than the others ; but it is at the same time true that it calls for 
deeper thought, more exact judgment on the part of the student, and a 
longer period of investigation. To meet these exigencies the Shaftesbury 
course is many sided, and intricate in its construction. Thus there are some 
thoughtful men who have spent their lives almost endeavoring to obtain light 
upon the very problems which we present ; they would prefer to attempt 
the answers without help or suggestion from us. For them Tome One is 
specially prepared. 

There are others who, after attempting to satisfy themselves that they 
are or are not qualified to meet so great a task as the Five Hundred Problems, 
desire to select the pith and essence of the study, and concentrate their efforts 
upon the most important portion of the work. For them Tome Two is 
specially arranged ; but it goes further than Tome One, in that it contains 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 



not only the One Hundred Major Problems, but admits for the first time in 
the Course a series of running suggestions, calculated to awaken the mind, 
stimulate thought, and urge specific investigation. 

GREATNESS OF THE COURSE. 
Had the Home-course in Philosophy stopped here, it would quite equal 
the most complete correspondence courses of other schools. But it is only 
on the threshold of its greatness. The eight Tomes which follow are an 
unfolding of life itself ; an encyclopedia of existence ; a volume in every 
page ; a wealth of fact in each of the one thousand lessons ; so stated that 
unnecessary verbiage is omitted, and knowledge made clear. Each sentence 
and paragraph has been carefully stripped of pedantic phrases and wordy 
expressions, in order that the truth might be preserved in its simple strength; 
for it too often happens that a valuable fact is lost by being buried in a 
chapter of words. To accomplish this, many thousand pages of manuscript 
have been written and discarded in the reduction. In the hundreds of lessons 
in the eight Tomes which follow the two examinations, are many quaeres, 
suggestions, and propositions calculated to stimulate thoughts and originate 
ideas in the pupils; so that no mind, however unpretentious, can pass through 
these lessons without a remarkable growth ; while the greater thinkers will 
find even more important helps to the plane of advanced learning and 
enlarged usefulness. The construction of this vast system of education is, 
therefore, many-sided and intricate. 

PROCEDURE— SELF-CRITICISM. 
We advise all pupils, whether they desire to graduate or not, to obtain 
a good-sized blank-book, and attempt to answer the questions of Tome One. 
Write the answers in ink, so that they may never be erased. Preserve them 
as a monument to mark your first step in the School of Philosophy. Those 
you cannot answer, leave unanswered, as a future evidence of your deficiency ; 
and, in as far as you "are able to solve the others, write carefully the replies. 
When the Course has proceeded further, and your mind has grown, make a 
new set of answers, and compare results. The difference will be your actual 
progress. Without this record, you will never realize how rapidly the mind 
improves; for one is apt to think that what he knows to-day was always a 
part of his general knowledge. 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 



COLLEGE EXAMINATION. 

If you prefer now, or at any time, to send your answers to us for judg- 
ment, we will carefully examine them, and send you a certificate of the 
First Examination, giving the actual percentage attained by you. The 
answers must be seamed, stitched and bound together; and will be retained 
by us as a manuscript volume. 

These suggestions have reference only to Tome One. Other steps, 
varied and interesting, are provided in each of the succeeding Tomes. It is 
our desire, however, to bring each pupil into habits of exact thought and 
study at this time, and the successful students will make frequent use of 
pen, ink and blank-books of record. 

HOW TO PEEPAEE ANSWERS. 

In forwarding the answers to us, the limit of words expressed in figures 
must be carefully preserved. Each question must be answered with suffi- 
cient fullness ; and yet must not exceed a certain number of words. Short 
answers may be evasive and may be charged to ignorance ; while long 
answers show an inability to state the matter with directness. Example : 
Question 1 is marked 12-30. This means that the answer must contain not 
Jess than twelve words, and not more than thirty. 

In sending answers, do not repeat the questions. Use only the num- 
bers. Write very plainly on paper 7 inches by 11 inches; on one side only. 
Leave one blank line between each answer. Or use a blank book. 

On page one of your answers copy and sign the following : 

STATEMENT. 



My full name with address is.. 



The answers following are all my own. I have used the language of no 
other person. While my thoughts may have been stimulated by the ideas of 
others, I have carefully examined them, and have thought out the answers 
in my own privacy. 

We encourage our students to meet others and study these questions 
mutually. To be a thoughtful inquirer is no small honor. 



THE FIVE HVXDllED PROBLEMS. 6 

SPECIAL NOTICE! 
For rules regarding Certificates of llerit, Certificates of Honor, Grad- 
uation in Philosophy, and the winning of the Great Diploma, as well as the 
attainment of the Degree, see liules of Graduation, at the end of Tome Ten. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 



LESSON I. 

1. What is a human being ? 12-30. 

2. What is a beast ? 8-20. 

3. What is vegetation? 11-27. 

4. What is instinct? 15-40. 

5. What is the Soul ? 16-42. 

[Note. — We believe absolutely in the existence of God, and in His 
inspired Writings. But we claim that Philosophy should not base its proof 
upon religion, inspiration, revelation, or the Scriptures. There is no mental 
satisfaction in accepting a fact unsupported by reason. We shall accept no 
answers in the spirit of "I cannot tell except from what I read in the 
Bible."] 

6. What is the substance of which the Soul is composed? 14-30. 

7. If you were to realize the presence of a human soul, what as you 
now think would be its size, shape, appearance, and condition? 12-50. 

8. If souls are co-extensive with the body, what becomes of that part 
which is co-extensive with the arm or limb, after amputation ? 8-20. 

[Note. — These questions have held the attention of the wisest men of 
the world. They are intended to start the mind into the deepest thinking.] 

9. How do you satisfy yourself that forms of created life, other than 
human beings, do or do not have souls? 50-100. 

10. How do you satisfy yourself that a human being does or does not 
have a soul ? 50-100. 



6 1I03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 



LESSON II. 

11. How do you satisfy yourself that the brute species of savage 
humanity do or do not have souls ? 10-40. 

12. What precise act constitutes the birth of a child ? 4-16. 

13. At what time before the birth of a child would voluntary destruc- 
tion of it constitute wilful murder? 4-17. 

14. What chemical process occurs when a child is conceived? 50-100. 

15. What is the chemical condition of two men, one of whom is im- 
potent, and the other of whom is capable of paternity ? 40-100. 

16. Does the soul of a child enter it at the time of conception, quick- 
ening, or birth ? State reasons. 10-20. 

17. Is the seed of man inherited, or is it formed at the time of 
puberty, at the time of desire, or spontaneously at the time of commerce ? 
State reasons. 10-20. 

18. When a Soul was imparted to the child, was it the creation of a 
new life? State reasons. 10-24. 

19. Was the Soul created from nothing, or had it some part in a pre- 
vious life? 10-20. 

20. How do you satisfy yourself that you have or have not previously 
lived as some form of life, in tree, flower, bird, or animal ? 20-80. 

LESSON III. 

21. How do you satisfy yourself that you have or have not previously 
existed as some human being? 28-70. 

22. How do you satisfy yourself that Homer, Virgil, Dante, and 
Shakespeare may or may not have been the same soul-life? 10-30. 

23. Is the Soul of the off-spring part of the soul-life of the parent? 
Reasons. 10-25. 

24. If the Soul is a new creation, fresh from the hand of God, how 
do you account for criminal tendencies which are handed down from parent 
to child? 10-40. 

25. If a criminal whose off-spring was sure to become criminal, should 
be given the opportunity of extensive parentage (as in some countries) would 
you assume that he carried in his body the seed of many lives, to which 
God would impart Souls that must eventually commit crime? 10-40. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 



26. Is a criminal disposition always inherited? Or may a long line 
of moral ancestors precede crime ? 4-28. 

27. Apart from the Bible accounts, how long has the human race 
existed? 10-20. 

28. How long has the earth existed ? 10-30. 

29. How long has the earth been habitable by man? 10-30. 

30. How long has the earth been habitable for vegetation? 10-30. 

LESSON IV. 

31. What does science show must have been the order of creation on 
earth? 10-40. 

32. Was man evolved from any lesser type of creation, or created 
outright by some Jiatf 10-70. 

33. Are natural laws the same in all ages? 10-16. 

34. How much of the human body is identical with vegetation. 10- 
40. 

35. Should man attempt to learn why he is on earth ; or should he 
accept his condition without question? 10-40. 

36. Should he study the processes of life which lead up to God, or 
should he veil his mind from the past? 10-20. 

37. Is God a being, a person, a spirit, a power, an essence, or a law ? 
Reasons 20-100. 

38. In early life what was your first idea of God? 10-30. 

39. If that idea has changed, when, how often, and from what causes ? 
16-40. 

40. If fixed natural laws exist, how do you explain omnipotence? 

10-40. 

LESSON V. 

41. If God is a person, how do you explain omnipresence? 10-40. 

42. Is God material in whole, or in part? G-12. 

43. Has matter always existed? 6-12. 

44. Of what value is matter either to the spiritual of earth or of Heaven ? 
10-40. 

45. Of what value would be the power of the spiritual without 
matter? 10-30. 



8 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 

46. Accepting the theory that all solids were once liquids, all liquids 
once gases, all gases once ether, how do you explain the formation of the 
universe and its worlds ? 40-200. 

47. If the gaseous condition was attended by heat so great as to 
destroy all germs of life, how do you explain the survival of the seed-germs 
which caused the earth to teem with every species of creation as soon as it 
had become cool ? 20-40. 

48. Accepting the theory that the universe is gradually losing its 
heat, explain how and where it goes ? 20-50. 

49. What is your theory of the origin of this great fire? 10-40. 

50. What purpose do you see in the long lapse of time, occupying 
millions of ages, in which this conflagration of the universe was in opera- 
tion, and ending only in the cooling of some orb on which man might dwell ? 
10-40. 

LESSON VI. 

51. What impression is made upon your mind by the theory that you 
are, always have been, and always will be, in the ever present? 10-30. 

52. How many religions have you ever heard or read about, and what 
are their chief characteristics? 20-100. 

53. In what eight respects do all religious, whether savage, pagan, 
Mohammedan or Christian, perfectly agree? 32-65. 

54. What is the necessary origin of all religions ? 15-60. 

55. If eight human beings, children of the most cultured, learned and 
civilized parents-, were cared for by dumb nurses and attendants until they 
were able to live by their own efforts ; and, without having heard a human 
voice but their own, were placed on a deserted island where they remained 
all their lives, — do you think they would have a religion, and how would it 
originate? 25-100. 

56. How do you satisfy yourself that there is or is not an innate 
religion in the heart ? 20-60. 

57. If fear of injury to life, liberty, limb, or property were entirely 
removed, what effect would this have upon the religious zeal of humanity? 
10-60. 

58. What is superstition ? 5-20. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 



59. What proportion of superstition is found in the most civilized 
religion? 4-20. 

60. If the Bible, under repeated attacks, shovild fall as an inspired 
Avork, what basis of religion would remain? G-30. 

LESSON VII. 

Gl. In what respect are the laws of nature cruel and terrible? lO-liO. 

()2. How far may a person, by the utmost care, avoid the cruelties and 
terrors of Nature ? 10-25. 

()o. Assuming that the Creator gave three laws to Atoms — attraction, 
repulsion, and revolution — and gave a Divine mission to Atomic life, how do 
you explain the process of all growth ? 40-100. 

()4. What is a chemical atom? 10-20. 

G5. What is a chemical molecule ? 10-20. 

G(). What is a chemical element ? 1 0-20. 

G7- How far does chemistry prove the existence of the atom, molecule, 
and element? 25-GO. 

G8. How much of life and matter is left to the operation of natural 
laws? 10-40. 

Gl). What evidence have you of a special adjustment of natural laws 
to suit the needs of life ? 20-SO. 

70. Is cold water heavier than warm water, and how do you explain 
it? 15-35. 

LESSON VIII. 

71. Why does congealed water expand and become lighter than warm 
water ? 10-25. 

72. If the law of contraction and increase of weight had applied to ice, 
what would have been the effect upon the life of the world? lG-40. 

73. What is the action of gravity? G-24. 

74. By what process can gravity operate ; or, how is it possible for 
one object to draw another to itself? 8-32. 

75. Describe the general result if the law of gravity should cease its 
operation? 10-40. 

7G. Why is the earth round ? G-20. 



10 H03II: COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 



77. Is it probable that the inclination of the earth's axis which causes 
the seasons, is the result of special design ? State reasons. 6-20. 

78. Of what advantage, if any, is the succession of seasons to man ? 
10-24. 

79. How do you satisfy yourself that the earth is or is not solely 
intended for the dwelling place of man ? 20-60. 

SO. Accepting the theory that the body of man is of the earth, and 
the mind and soul are phospho-electrical, has man any existence apart from 
the earth? State reasons. 20-60. 

LESSON IX. 

81. Is human life of advantage to any purpose of the Creator, if so, 
state how? 20-35. 

82. What is your description of the vital spark or glame? 10-20. 

83. Assuming that phosphatic foods are necessary to the operations of 
the brain, and that without them the mind is weakened and rendered subject 
to sin, how do you explain the influence which the mind has over the soul ? 
20-35. 

84. What is the process of thought? 15-30. 

85. What is consciousness? 10-25. 

86. What is a train of thought ? 10-25. 

87. Describe the chemical process by which a sound body affects the 
mind? 10-30. 

88. If a wise man, of great brain power, were to avoid eating phos- 
phatic foods for a year, what would be his mental condition? 10-20. 

89. If the mind originates thoughts and deeds of wickedness, what 
effect on the soul has this condition of the mind ? 10-40. 

90. Is the spiritual stature affected by the wickedness or weakness of 

the mind? 6-20. 

LESSON X. 

91. What is the difference between the mental condition of an idiot 
and of a wild beast ? 6-30. 

92. In insanity, what part of the brain is affected? 3-18. 

93. Would derangement of the cerebellum or medulla oblongata affect 
a man morally? 6-18. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 11 

94. Supposing a child had been fed on proper food, but liad never 
read books, talked with others, or seen life about them, what would be his 
mental condition ? 2-12. 

95. Accepting the theory that vegetation is identical with a part of 
the human system (digestion, respiration, and circulation), what degree of 
consciousness and feeling would trees, flowers, and vines possess? 10-30. 

90. Would an idiot, possessing no life in the cerebrum, recognize im- 
pressions received through the hearing, sight, smell, taste, or touch? 3-10. 

97. Accepting the theory that sound is vibratory movement in mass 
of any matter, how do you explain the action of hearing? 10-50. 

98. Is the sense of hearing the result of the action of sound upon the 
brain, or was the faculty of hearing created by design? 10-40. 

99. If no form of life existed capable of hearing, would sound ex- 
ist? 3-10. 

100. Accepting the theory that the senses of taste and smell are 
chemical changes affecting certain nerves, describe their process. 10-28. 

LESSOX XI. 

101. How is taste a protection to the stomach ? 6-10. 

102. Assuming that the chief natural functions of all life is the 
acquisition of food, explain how the five senses of animated life are aids? 
25-60. 

103. What impels the root of a tree in dry soil to go a long distance 
for water? 10-25. 

104. What process akin to taste impels the root of an onion and the 
root of the beet in the same soil to select separate food? 16-40. 

105. Wherein does the digestive action of the plant and man perfectly 
resemble each other? 6-30. 

106. What is the sense of touch ? 6-30. 

107. What process occurs along the nerves from the foot to the brain 
when the sense of touch is communicated ? 6-40. 

108. What part of the brain is affected ? 6-16. 

109. Is the sense of touch a sense of development purely ? 4-12. 

110. Describe the process by which a man dwelling in the dark would 
become blind. 6-24. 



12 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 

LESSON XII. 

111. What effect would use have upon the origin as well as the devel- 
opment of the sense of sight? 10-30. 

112. Accepting the theory that non-use of the sense of sight for gen- 
erations not only would result in blindness but in a total wasting away of 
the eyeballs, how do you satisfy yourself that the eyes are or are not origi- 
nated by the action of the light? 15-60. 

113. Accepting the theory that exposed flesh will weave a covering 
of skin by union with the air, and thus limit the body in size and shape, 
how do you satisfy yourself that the human body is not the result of uses 
and tendencies? 15-60. 

114. In view of the fact that the Bible account of the creation is con- 
strued in accordance with the meaning of the original language ; and that 
what seems in the translations to imply that the universe, earth, and man 
were created in six actual days, when in fact all theologians of education 
believe the time to have been long periods of ages; would it be contradictory 
to the Bible to assume that man was the result of long processes of devel- 
opment? 10-40. 

115. Judging from the standpoint of science, what are all the ways 
you can mention in which man may have come into existence? 20-60. 

116. Accepting the theory that God did not create the forms of life, 
but merely charged Atoms with PUL, or purpose (see later questions), 
would not this ever present purpose in all life account for the obedience of 
the matter to the law of necessity ? 10-40. 

117. Do the dormant muscles of the ear of man indicate a former use 
of the ears, obedient to the law of necessity in a wilder state? 10-40. 

118. If man did not come into existence immediately upon the fiat of 
God, does science indicate development from the protoplasmic cell, through 
processes confined to man alone ; or through the lower forms of animal life? 
10-60. 

119. Was man, when the species of man came into existence, much 
lower in the scale of civilization than his average has been for the last three 
thousand years ? State reasons. 10-40. 

120. How do you account for the origin and existence of savage men? 
10-50, 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 13 

LESSON XIII. 

121. What is the instinctive law of defense? 10-4(\ 

122. AVhat is man's chief means of defense? 10-30. 

123. Name all domestic animals, or those regarded as capable of being 
tamed, and state the means of defense of each. 46-100. 

124. What extraordinary means of defense have been given to some 
sea life? 20-60. 

125. Assuming that all life is made for the good of man, why are 
deadly serpents allowed to exist? 15-40. 

126. Why are poisons made to grow? 10-30. 

127. Why are dangers from hundreds of sources set about man? 
20-60. 

128. Why is the patient, helpless, sweet-tempered sufferer, who lies 
upon a bed of sickness, tormented by day with flies, and stung at night by 
mosquitoes? 10-40. 

129. Why were four beautiful children, who, on seeing a bright dia- 
mond as they thought, placed their lingers to it, stung to death ? 
10-40. 

130. State the one hundred most serious dangers to life? 100-200. 

LESSON XIV. 

131. When is man justified in killing a human being? 20-40. 

132. What disposition should organized society make of the mur- 
derer? 10-30. 

133. If A. intends to kill B. is C. justified in saving B. from other- 
wise certain death by killing A. ? State reasons. 10-30. 

134. What is C.'s duty ? 6-20. 

135. If A,, a powerful man, intends to unjustifiably chastise B., a 
weak man ; and the latter's brother is able to save him from severe bodily 
harm, only by killing A., what may he do, and what should he do? 10-30. 

136. What would be man's duty under the same circumstances if his 
wife, mother, sister, or daughter were the intended victim ? 6-20. 

137. To what extent may a man injure another to defend himself from 
slight bodily harm ? (5-20. 



14 SOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 

138. la a community where law does not exist, or is ineffectual, how 
may an aggrieved person punish a criminal ? 6-20. 

139. In a community where law does not exist, or is ineffectual, when 
murder or other heinous crimes have been committed, what is the duty of 
peaceful citizens ? 6-20. 

140. What is the general effect of unpunished crime ? 6-20. 

LESSON XV. 

141. Assuming that the criminal disposition of humanity is stronger 
and weaker alternately in periods of seven years, what duty does a person of 
criminal tendency owe himself? 8-24. 

142. How far is crime a disease ? 5-30. 

143. Accepting the theory that fear of punishment deters a criminal, 
is imprisonment merely a sufficient safe-guard to society ? 4-24. 

144. May a person who inherits a criminal disposition completely 
eradicate the same from his nature? 5-28. 

145. Assuming the theory asserted by some that a criminal is partially 
insane, and that this form of insanity may be checked by the fear of punish- 
ment, as the facts seem to show, how far is the person responsible for per- 
mitting this insane tendency to obtain control of him? ■ 10-35. 

146. Accepting the theory that a large portion of the insane are 
deterred from acts of violence by the fear of punishment, how far is insan- 
ity a voluntary giving way to passion ? 6-20. 

147. How far is a person responsible for his crimes who, through a 
determination not to be thwarted in his purpose, becomes headstrong and 
violent on the slightest provocation? 10-35. 

148. A child is allowed by his parents to have his own way in all re- 
spects ; at the age of eight, while associating with other boys is surprised 
and angered at being thwarted, and kills a companion. Who is to blame, 
and why? 4-12. 

149. A child from early infancy is incorrigible ; whipping lightly or 
severely does not affect him , coaxing, persuading, and kindness are in- 
effectual ; he steadily grows worse. AVhat is the duty of his parents ? 8-30. 

150. AYhich is the more serious offence : injury to the body through 
violence; or injury to the reputation through slander or libel? 4-12. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PB0BLE3IS. 15 

LESSON XVI. 

151. If a man is justified in protecting his body from anticipated 
injury by punishing the aggressor ; what is his right as to a slanderer who 
has and will continue to do injury to his reputation? 10-40. 

152. As libel is more harmful than slander, if a man were sure that 
he could prevent an unjustifiable and criminal libellous attack, by adopting 
the same means as would be allowed when in fear of physical assault, what 
would be his right? 10-30. 

153. If a man publicly libelled another without right or cause, and 
was afterwards killed by the aggrieved party, who was tried for the offence ; 
what would be the duty of the jury ? 6-30. 

[Note. — These questions are not based upon the existing laws, but upon 
the principles which should underlie all human law.] 

154. Assuming that one murderer is put to death to prevent more 
murders by him or others, is his death justifiable when this end is certainly 
accomplished? 4-16.] 

155. Accepting the fact, which statistics abundantly prove, that 
slander and libel cause thousands of murders annually throughout the civil- 
ized world ; and that law is practically ineffectual in dealing with slander 
and libel ; how can you satisfy yourself in accordance with the principles 
involved in the preceding question, that one who ruins a reputation which 
is more valuable than life should or should not be summarily punished by 
the party injured? 10-60. 

156. If the slaying of the libeller is sure to prevent more murders, 
especially by its public example, how do you satisfy yourself that such slay- 
ing is or is not justifiable? 10-60. 

157. What is the difference in the gravity of the offence between the 
unjustifiable killing of a savage Indian and an intelligent animal? 6-30. 

158. How do you satisfy yourself that a human being is or is not 
justified in killing another human being for the purpose of food when life 
can be saved in this way only? 10-50. 

159. If a hunter kills birds or other life for sport merely what 
offence if any is committed ? 6-25. 

160. When is it right to destroy harmless animal life ? 6-20. 
2 



16 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 



LESSON XVII. 

161. Is it right for a strong nation to destroy the government of a 
weaker nation for the purpose of advancing the cause of civilization? 4-30. 

162. How do you satisfy yourself that it is or is not right to take 
animal life for the purpose of food, assuming that vegetation furnishes a 
more complete and healthful food? 20-45. 

163. Name ten causes of human association. 20-80. 

164. What form of government is most conducive to happiness? 6-30. 

165. What is the chief end of government? 4-20. 

166. On what principle should people who pay no taxes be permitted 
to vote? 8-30. 

167. What class of persons should be deprived of the right of voting? 

168. What plan do you suggest by which the chief burdens of tax- 
ation may be borne by the rich alone? 20-80. 

169. Has a government a moral right to limit the accumulation of 
wealth in private individuals? 4-18. 

170. Is it advisable for the government to permit corporations to con- 
trol enormous properties? 15-50. 

LESSON XVIII. 

171. Is the intermarriage of races advantageous to a people? 4-20. 

172. If a nation by thrift and superior intelligence had made itself 
superior to other nations, what would be the effect if it permitted foreigners 
to enter its land without restriction ? 6-20. 

173. What would be the effect of the immigration of 200,000,000 
Chinese into the United States? 10-40. 

174. If at the present rate of increase the negro population of the 
United States should reach twenty millions in number, what would be the 
effect upon the nation at large ? 6-30. 

175. What would be the effect upon locations where they swarmed in 
lawless bodies, refusing to work and living by depredations? 10-50. 

176. Accepting as a fact the statistical report that five million negroes 
are born annually, ninety-four per cent, of whom become illiterate and pre- 
datory, what effect must this condition eventually produce ? 14-60. 

177. What is the solution of this problem? 6-30. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. Vj 

178. If negro children refuse to attend school, or to be obedient in 
school, how can they be educated? 6-40. 

170. What races in the United States should be prevented by law 
from intermarriage? 4-12. 

180. Is it possible that the negro race may ever be blended into the 
nationality of the United States ? 3-12. 

LESSON XIX. 

181. Has the government a moral right to compel an able-bodied 
person to work? 4-16. 

182. Accepting the fact that imprisonment is sought by vagrants what 
better method of punishing them may be devised? 10-25. 

183. Is the increasing army of tramps a danger to the happiness of 
the people? 4-16. 

184. How should they be dealt with ? 10-40. 

185. If man is able to work, but will not when asked, should he be 
supported by charity? 6-12. 

186. What is the chief cause of poverty? 8-30. 

187. What is the chief cause of prosperity? 8-30. 

188. From what races do the majority of tramps come? 10-18. 

189. Is the acquisition of wealth generally compatible with honesty? 
6-16. 

190. What is envy? 

LESSON XX. 

191. How does it arise? 4-21. 

192. Does it exist among animals ? 6-12. 

193. Could progress exist without it ? 4-11. 

194. What is hate? 4-18. 

195. How does it arise ? 4-20. 

196. What animals are free from hate ? 20-40. 

197. What Indians are free from hate ? 10-16. 

198. What Turks? 9-15. 

199. What Russians? 6-10. 

200. What is dishonesty? 10-20. 



18 ROME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE ONE. 



LESSON XXI. 

201. What is the cause of it ? 12-22. 

202. If a large sum of money were placed in the way of one thousand 
average human beings, who knew that it could be taken with no chance of 
detection, what probable number would yield to the temptation? 12-25. 

203. How far does the knowledge of dishonesty prompt the hatred of 
mankind ? 6-20. 

204. What proportion of the civilized world hate? 6-24. 

205. What proportion are free from sin ? 1-3. 

206. If envy were removed from the heart could sin exist ? 3-16. 

207. If man was made a free moral agent, could he exist on an equality 
with others ? 4-20. 

208. Could he, in his freedom, make progress without exciting the 
envy of inferiors? 3-12. 

209. Assuming every person living to be honest, how could freedom 
exist without sin ? 6-20. 

210. Start at that point where all are poor and possess equal oppor- 
tunities and faculties, equal ambition and energy, equal merit and tact, — 
they all adopt the same methods at the same time for securing a share of the 
wealth of the world; in ten years would they be equally situated? 4-16. 

LESSON XXII. 

211. Describe the probable course of events. 30-100. 

212. What part would accident play in the distribution of wealth 
among men equally endowed and of equal opportunity ? 10-30. 

213. What is the doctrine of chance ? 10-30. 

214. How far may a man control the circumstances which surround 
his life? 10-40. 

215. Is there a divinity which shapes our ends, rough hew them how 
we will ? Explain. 6-24. 

216. What basis is there for the semi-mythology which states that 
there is a good and bad angel attending each person? 16-40. 

217. What basis is there for the belief that our lives are affected by 
the stars and planets under which we are born? 16-40. 

218. What is petty superstition ? 10-30. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. ^ 16 

219. How does it originate? 10-30. 

220. Wliat part does it play in the origin of religions? 6-20. 

LESSON XXIII. 

221. Name the twelve principal superstitions of the day ? 19-60. 

222. Is the belief of the Indians as to a happy hunting ground a 
religion or a superstition? 6-18. 

223. How do you account for the absolute faith which some people 
have in the common superstitions of the day? 15-30. 

224. Supposing a number of good people have been impressed with 
certain superstitions, which they have handed down to their children and 
preserved in writing ; and that their descendants retain absolute faith in 
them, even regarding them as sacred, until it became impossible to shake 
their belief in them ; could these superstitions be regarded as inspired doc- 
trines of religion? Explain. 10-30. 

225. From what roots are the words Jehovah and Jupiter derived? 
4-18. 

226. How did the old mythology originate? 15-40. 

227. What is paganism? 6-18. 

228. How do you account for the fact that all nations and tribes have 
some form of religion ? 12-35. 

229. By what means do many religions seek to impress the people ? 
12-60. 

230. What are miracles? 7-28. 

LESSON XXIV. 

231. Have they ever occurred except in connection with religion? 
4-23. 

232. What miracles of the New Testament may be explained through 
the process of natural laws ? 10-28. 

233. What cannot be so explained? 10-28. 

234. What has been the purpose of miracles ? 6-30. 

235. Accepting the theory that the Divine Power could make itself 
felt and known beyond all doubting, is it not reasonable to suppose that 
miracles were due to some process of natural laws which are not fully known 
to us? Explain. 10-45. 



20 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 

236. Is it possible for a man by laying his finger lightly upon a table 
to cause the table to move by reason of some power stronger than that of his 
muscles? 6-12. 

237. Have you any knowledge or belief that this can be done? 3-15. 

238. Assuming that it is possible can you account for it. Explain. 
18-75. 

239. What is electricity? 12-60. 

240. How is it generated ? 6-35. 

LESSON XXV. 

241. What qualities does it possess ? 10-50. 

242. How is light generated ? 10-25. 

243. State the essential difference between electricity and fire. 
15-45. 

244. Is electricity created or merely collected ? 4-40. 

245. What is its condition when dormant? 6-19. 

246. State the essential difference between electricity and phosphorus. 
15-45. 

247. In what substances is electricity not found ? 15-60. 

248. What is the origin of phosphorus ? 

249. What relation has phosphorus to life ? 12-30. 

250. What species of life are not dependent upon the presence of 
electricity? 6-40. 

LESSON XXVI. 

251. Accepting the theory that phosphorus is dormant electricity and 
that the form of electricity known as Glame is present in all life is it not 
true that electricity and phosphorus are closely allied to the source of life ? 
Explain. 20-80. 

252. Separating in the mind the action of phosphorus from the 
element known as phosphorus how closely does it resemble the aurora borealis? 
12-30. 

253. Accepting the theory that the aurora borealis is the PUL glow of 
Atoms, explain the process by which it occurs ? 20-40. 

254. What is human electricity ? 12-40. 

255. In what parts of the body is it generated ? 1 1-28. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. Si 

256. What parts of the body are phosphoric ? 11-28. 

257. Accepting the theory that vegetation is the first step in the life 
of man what phosphoric tendencies are therein shown? 12-30. 

258. Accepting the theory that the life of vegetation centres in it? 
seed, and that this seed furnishes the best food for animal life including man, 
without which the latter could not exist, is it not true that the power of man 
should be drawn directly from vegetation ? 8-40. 

259. Accepting the theory that thought is phosphoric activity of the 
brain and nervous system how do you satisfy yourself that the mind and 
soul may or may not be electrical forces ? 6-30. 

260. Is any man able to investigate the minutest processes of life ? 
3-12. 

LESSON XXVII. 

261. Is he able to investigate the larger life of the universe? 3-12. 

262. Although witnessed in its effect what force does man know less 
about than electricity ? 12-30. 

263. Accepting the theory that electricity is the first immediate essence 
of all life, and the most difficult to understand is it unreasonable to assume 
that this power is the direct agency of the Creator ? 6-30. 

264. What is light ? 6-25. 

265. How is it destroyed ? 6-25. 

266. How do you account for the transparency of an object? 12-30. 

267. How for thetranslucency? 12-30. 

269. How for refraction ? 12-30. 

270. What is heat? 12-30. 

LESSON XXYIII. 

271. What relation is it to light ? 12-30. 

272. What relation has heat to vegetable life? 12-30. 

273. What is animal life ? 12-30. 

274. What is chemical heat? 12-30. 

275. What is spontaneous combustion? 12-30. 

276. What is fire? 12-30. 

277. How does it differ from heat and light ? 12-30. 

278. Describe the process of frictional heat? 12-30. 



22 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 



279. What is the essential difference between sound and light? 
12-30. 

280. Was the larynx created by design ? 6-15. 

LESSON XXIX. 

281. What is the origin of song? 12-30. 

282. What is harmony ? 20-60. 

283. What are the uses of music ? 15-75- 

284. What is fragrance? 12-30. 

285. What is the office of colors? 8-35. 

286. How many elementary colors are there? 6-15. 

287. What is white? 6-15. 

288. What is black? 6-15. 

289. What relation has color to light ? 9-35. 

290. What causes the growth of flowers? 6-28. 

LESSON XXX. 

291. Is the beauty of flowers only relative ? 3-12. 

292. Were they designed for the happiness of man? 4-12, 

293. What is meant by happiness ? 6-20. 

294. How does it differ from contentment ? 8-30. 

295. Is any human being perfectly happy? 3-12. 

296. What circumstances are necessary for perfect happiness ? 12-40. 

297. What is the chief source of happiness ? 3-15. 

298. Describe a person perfectly contented ? 30-100. 

299. What relation has wealth to happiness? 8-40. 

300. Is abject poverty compatible with some degree of happiness ? 



3-15. 



LESSON XXXI. 

301. What effect has contentment upon the health ? 8-20. 

302. Describe the process? 12-30. 

303. Need a person ever be unhappy ? 3-12. 

304. What is health ? 8-30. 

305. What is the cause of age ? 4-16. 

306. If without calcareous deposits old age could never come to man, 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 23 

would it be reasonable to assume that death need never occur except by 
accident? 3-20. 

307. Is it necessary tliat the body should die? Explain. 3-25. 

308. How do you satisfy yourself that it may or may not be the 
intention of the Creator that man should discover the means of perpetuating 
his life ? 5-20. 

309. Accepting the theory that the Soul is but an electrical force, is it 
not probable that the discovery of the real nature of electricity would dis- 
close the nature of Soul-life and of God? 10-30. 

310. What is death? 4-20. 

LESSON XXXII. 

311. What is its purpose? 10-30. 

312. What natural reason has man for thinking that he is immortal? 
19-60. 

313. What reason for thinking that Soul-life hereafter will dijfferfrom 
its life in the present body? 20-()0. 

314. With or without the aid of religion, would not a man yearn for 
the hope of a life hereafter? 19-20. 

315. Would that yearning give birth to some code of living as a means 
of attaining such a life ? 7-25. 

316. Does not all human nature look for some signs or promise of 
Heaven? 6-10. 

317. What does the word Heaven mean? 5-14. 

31 S. In the darker ages of the world where life was in constant danger 
would not human beings be led to see such signs of promise both in nature 
and in the circumstances about them ? 6-20. 

319. Would not such impressions grow into a religion? Explain. 
11-30. 

320. Might not such yearnings be inspired ? Explain. 8-24. 

LESSON XXXIII. 

321. Would such inspiration be incompatible with true religion ? 7-30. 

322. What is inspiration ? 12-40. 

323. What may be inspired? 12-3(). 



24 HOME COURSE IN PllILOSO THY— TOME ONE. 

324. Is not all inspiration from God ? 3-15. 

325. Taking the world altogether, is good or bad more prevalent? 
3-20. 

326. Regardless of laws or commandments, what acts of man are 
wrong jserse? 14-50. 

327. Allowing a man of safe judgment to be the judge of his own 
conduct, what effect would obedience to his own moral code have upon the 
salvation of his Soul ? 12-30. 

328. What has right and wrong to do with Soul-life? 16-40. 

329. How can weakness, errors, and imperfections originating in the 
flesh affect the character of the Soul? 10-30. 

330. Describe the sins of vegetation ? 

LESSON XXXIY. 

331. What crimes may a tree commit ? 10-40. 

332. How is an animal punished who wantonly kills a child? 6-25. 
332. What right has the spider to entrap the fly? 10-20. 

334. The very small fish are eaten by the small, the small by the 
large, the large by the larger, the larger by the largest, the largest by the 
shark, what right has each to devour the other ? 6-30. 

335. What lesson is thus taught ? 10-40. 

336. The pet cat devours the pet bird, causing a whole household of 
human beings to mourn, — what lesson is taught? 10-30. 

337. The law of hill is universal, — how does it come to be so? 6-40. 

338. The human mother loves its offspring, — what love is that? 10-39. 

339. The lioness loves its offspring, — why ? 6-30. 

340. Human beings and animals quarrel for possession, each in the 
same spirit ; why this resemblance ? 6-24. 

LESSON XXXV. 

341. Both classes are jealous, revengeful, envious, playful, wilful 
and lazy in degree; what does this indicate ? 20-40. 

342. In what respects are human beings of the same creative mold as 
birds? 12-40. 

343. How do you account for it? 12-40. 

344. How does man resemble fish ? 12-40, 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 25 

345. In respiration, circulation and digestion man is identical with 
vegetation ; what does this indicate? 10-30. 
340. What is human marriage ? 10-40. 

347. What is bird marriage? G-30. 

348. Wliat law of nature prompts the bird couple to keep their mar- 
riage relations inviolate? 10-35. 

349. What is the moral life of the noblest bird, as compared with 
man's morality. 10-35. 

350. Without taking into consideration the responsibility due to su- 
perior intelligence, state the ten classes of beings and created life, including 
vegetation ; and place the Caucasian race in its proper relative rank of 
morality? 10-40. 

LESSON XXXVI. 

351. Is it incompatible with religion to assume that Soul-life is present 
in all creatures. ? 6-30. 

352. What is man's moral status compared with that of woman ? 10-30 

353. What his comparative natural intelligence? 10-30. 

354. What is love? 6-40. 

355. Eunuchs and men having no semen never exhibit the slightest 
evidence of love ; what does this fact teach ? 10-60. 

356. A boy and girl of good disposition show affection for each other 
until they reach the age of puberty; then they fall in love. Describe fully 
the two conditions? 20-80. 

357. Animals of the higher order, and birds especially, fall in love, 
court, appear at their best, and win or lose the female ; all in the same 
nature as men. What explanation for the similarity ? 10-40. 

358. Apart from law or custom, is it right jper se for one male ever to 
cohabit with two females in any class of beings? 4-12. 

350. What is flower marriage? 

360. Should a widow or widower ever re-marry or not? Explain. 



15-40. 



LESSON XXXVII. 

361. Is divorce ev^er right per se, or not? 10-80. 

362. Explain the full chemical process of generation of life? 50-200. 



26 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE ONE. 

363. What is post marital love? 10-40. 

364. What is man's duty as to marrying ? 6-40. 

365. What is nature's primary object in promoting love and marriage ? 
5-18. 

366. Is it wrong per se to avoid parentage ? 6-20. 

367. Are there too many persons in the world? 2-10. 

368. Is it the design of Nature to increase the number of men, or to 
better the quality of the race ; or does she simply furnish the laws of life, 
subject to man's control and choice? Explain. 15-60. 

369. Some philosophers advocate the legal prevention of parentage 
among the criminal and almost worthless classes. What are your views ? 
16-40. 

370. How could such a law be enforced? 6-40. 

LESSON XXXVIII. 

371. What is character ? 10-100. 

372. What is the chemical action of appetite? 10-30. 

373. Is instinct in man superior to his judgment as to choice of foods? 
10-35. 

375. What is temper ? 10-30. 

376. What is its philosophy ? 6-25. 

377. What is mercy? 10-35. 

378. What is its philosophy ? 10-32. 

379. If humanity escapes justice what is the process? 16-40. 

380. Why are the elements merciless ? 10-30. 

LESSON XXXIX. 

381. Cannot all exhibitions of natural mercy be ascribed to accident? 
Explain. 10-40. 

382. What is culture ? 10-30. 

383. When man allows himself to drift to Nature is the tendency good 
or bad? 6-20. 

384. Why is this? 12-40. 

385. Can you see in life two tendencies ; that which is toward 
Nature, leading to depravity ; and that which is from Nature, leading to 
culture ? Explain. 25-60. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 27 

386. Is or is not man at his best the creature of his own choice? 4-12. 

387. Can a lazy man excuse himself for the crime of depravity? 4-12. 

388. If a savage in a most barbarous state is a stepping stone toward 
a moral being, is he more than vegetation at his death? ()-12. 

389. Accepting the theory which nature seems to teach, and the Bible 
asserts positively, that only the worthy are saved, would absolute depravity 
in man, followed by death, as of a tree, be an illogical process? 4-20. 

390. What right has any person to assert that a being, who happens 
to have the shape of man, must therefore have an immortal soul? 4-30. 

LESSON XL. 

391. What reasons are there for stating that such an assumption is or 
is not an unwarrantable conclusion ? 20-00. 

392. Taking the human race as a whole it possesses extraordinary 
intelligence, but name ten animals which possess greater intelligence than the 
lowest races of men ? 10-40. 

393. Name some form of created life which is higher in the moral 
scale than man ? 2-S. 

394. Why do some theologians dispute the doctrine of the Bible as to 
man's destruction ? 6-20. 

395. Are mystery, awe and threats of punishment calculated to prompt 
men to abandon sin ? Explain. 7-40. 

396. If no laws existed, and no Divine Message had ever come to men, 
how long would a community do without government? 7-25. 

397. What natural principle would soon establish a code of ethics? 4-12. 
398- How many ways are there of governing a small band of people 

who are left to themselves? 6-19. 

399. What people would soon control ? 4-18. 

400. If a man, by referring to some unknown power could perform 
acts beyond human explanation, would he be credited with super natural 
gifts? 7-20. 

LESSON XLI. 

401. Iq a semi-savage age, when all ordinary means of government 
fail, would a person be deterred from committing sins which are beyond 
detection, by the command of such a person? 4-16. 



28 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 

402. In such an age, would a man desiring power probably yield to 
the temptation of awing the people by supposed miraculous acts ? 6-20. 

403. What nations and peoples in the world's history have been 
prominent in such acts? 100-400. 

404. Accepting the historical present known fact that no nation nor 
people has been exempt from this method of surpressing crime and prevent- 
ing many undetectable wrongs, is it not proper to conclude that such acts 
were inspired? 6-20. 

405. Has not each religion been adapted to each age and people? 7-25. 

406. Need any religion be wrong, whose underlying principle is 
perfect morality ? 6-15. 

407. If the Old Testament served its ages, and is now revered as the 
historical Word of God ; if the New Testament is adapted to the present 
age and is making the world better; does it matter by what instrumentality 
God caused them to appear? 4-20. 

408. Supposing science and reason should succeed in their assaults 
upon the Bible, would the true philosopher have less reason to revere it as 
the instrumentality of God suited to the work of its special era ? 6-15. 

409. Is it probable that Soul-life can ever be any different from what 
we find it now? 7-15. 

410. What reason is there to support the philosophy that the soul 
passes on from life to life until it becomes worthy of heaven? 10-60. 

LESSON XLII. 

411. If according to Victor Hugo's philosophy, the Soul lives again 
on earth, but fails in its memory to recall its preceding lives, what difference 
is there between such failure of memory and annihilation ? 4-25. 

412. If the soul passes from earth to Heaven, but becomes a new 
being, knowing no sin, nor sorrow, and nothing of earthly life, what is the 
difference of such a state and annihilation ? 4-20. 

413. What is the tendency of worlds ? 6-40. 

414. What is the condition of the moon ? 6-40. 

415. What is the destiny of worlds which are losing their heat? 10-60. 

416. From a study of Nature what is the probability as to the peopl- 
ing of other worlds ? 6-40. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 29 

417. What is ihe probable number of inhabitecl worlds in space?12-40. 

418. A satellite has its planet, planets have their sun ; is it probable 
that the solar systems of space have some central seat of government ? 4-20. 

419. From the study of natural laws, is it not a certainty that all 
matter is governed ? 6-28. 

420. Name any matter that is free from government? 6-75. 

LESSON XLIII. 

42 1 . Accepting the theory that the universe has a centre of government, 
by what laws (of those known) would the solar system be governed ? 20-80. 

[Note. — The Shaftesbury Philosophy declares that there are no laws in 
the universe which are not visible to man, in 0])eration or effect ; that all 
existeuce, past, present and future, will be found to conform to those laws ; 
that electricity, ultra- microscopic life and ultra- telescopic life are the three 
divisions of the unknown, and embrace all that is now unknown to man; 
that electricity is God direct, and Soul-life is PUL-glow, or the appear- 
ance of phosphorus, or dormant electricity ; that man will yet learn more of 
this vitality ; that ultra-microscopic life will be better known ; that disease 
and age will be better overcome ; that ultra-telescopic life can be different 
from the sun and earth in size and extent only ; that the seat of government 
is the home of God, consisting of a mass of matter exactly like the earth and 
sun ; but larger than all the solar systems combined ; that the latter were 
thrown from the central mass in Atoms charged with three laws (attraction, 
repulsion and revolution); that every law of life, chemistry and electricity 
may be perfectly accounted for by these laws and by these alone ; and that 
the human body is but a form of vegetation, serving as a vehicle for the birth 
and transition of the soul. Acting on this philosophy we expect the remain- 
ing questions to be answered on the hypothesis of the truth of the philosophy.] 

422. Is it reasonable to suppose that the soul is hidden in this life? 4-20. 

423. Is it reasonable to suppose that there are laws whose effect is not 
seen by man? 4-2(). 

424. Have you ever had evidence of Soul-life? 4-16. 

425. What is spiritualism ? 10-80. 

426. What of its claims are grossly improbable ? 10-25. 

427. Where do these spirits dwell ? 6-30. 



30 HOME COURSE JN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 

428. What is the origin of spiritualism ? 7-25. 

429. What conditions make it possible ? 13-29. 

430. What minds are led to believe in it? 10-40. 

LESSON XLIV. 

431. Taking the whole scheme of spiritualism as a system what hope 
does it give man? 12-28. 

432. Have you ever seen a spirit? If so state the circumstances 
fully. 1-35. 

433. Have you ever heard any authentic account of the appearance of 
a ghost? 1-12. 

434. May the appearance have been due to electrical disturbance of 
the nervous system ? 1-12. 

435. Are ghosts associated with horror? 1-10. 

436. Explain the chemical process which occurs when an insane man 
sees images of horror ? 30-90. 

437. When a fevered brain sees apparitions? 20-70. 

438. When a drunken man sees snakes? 20-60. 

439. When a fervid actor sees his counterpart before him? 15-35. 

440. On what natural law may a person honestly believe in spiritual- 
ism to a degree admitting of no change of mind, and yet be in error ? 28-64. 

LESSON XLV. 

441. Is the sense of sight essential to Soul-life? 4-16. 

442. How can the physical brain perform the ultimate act of seeing ? 
5-29. 

443. Between the inner photograph of the object on the brain and 
that which is conscious of the appearance, what occurs? 20-60. 

444. Assuming that consciousness to be Soul-life, is the power of 
sight inherent in the soul, and separate from the physical sense? 4-40. 

445. Would the Soul, or electrical essence, if freed from the body, 
see trees, sky, flowers, and beings ? 6-20. 

446. What is darkness, affirmatively described ? 20-40. 

447. On what physical law would the Soul see in darkness as well as 
in light? 12-30. 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 31 

448. Accepting the theory that AE, or Atomic lines, are light to Soul- 
life, what condition must exist in order to produce " outer darkness ? " 1 8-35. 

440. Do the five physical senses, although different in their percep- 
tions, impress the mind in the same part of the brain, and excite the same 
consciousness? 10-40. 

450. Assuming that Soul-life must exist under physical laws, but 
without the aid of the physical body, of what use would smell, taste, 
hearing and touch be? 16-45. 

LESSON XLVI. 

451. If Soul-life is electrical in its nature, is it dependent upon 
matter ? 6-20. 

452. Why is electricity not material ? 10-40. 

453. Is the speed of electricity due to its affinity for matter, or its 
inability to find affinity in matter ? 6-20. 

454. Although the speed of light is far greater than that of electricity, 
why is it that man cannot learn as much of the latter as of the former ? 1 2-35. 

455. Assuming that all the senses, except that of sight, are merely 
guardians of the stomach and the safety of the body ; and that they all 
centre in the mental sensation, called knowledge ; would not the Soul, when 
freed from the body, obtain all knowledge direct, and in the same manner 
as the brain wovf hnows after the sense nerves have impressed it? 6-25. 

456. Noise tires, poison wounds, heat burns, cold freezes, odors 
annoy, all because the access to the mind is by means of the body ; but what 
effect would the cold realms of space, or the sun's fire, have upon the Soul- 
substance? 16-42. 

457. Does the Soul occupy space? 7-17. 

458. May it grow old ? 7-21. 

459. Assuming that God has made no laws except those which He 
has manifested to man, how can He be omnipotent? 9-41. 

460. On what known law would the soul leave the body ? 6-27. 

LESSON XLVII. 

461. What is the chemical process of the passage of the Soul from 
the body ? 34-70. 

462. What sight would be necessary in order to see it? 14-56. 
3 



32 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE ONE. 

463. How can life be checked in a tree ? 6-28. 

464. How may a tree, once dead, be revived? 9-40. 

465. By a slight pressure on the throat the breath is closed out, and 
the heart ceases to beat. Efforts are made to revive the vitality, but no 
man has ever been able to bring the dead to life. " She is not dead, but 
sleepeth," is to be taken as stated ; unless the Soul, departed, may be called 
back. What must be the chemical process by which the Soul again possesses 
the body? 26-41. 

466. By what law may the Soul pass through solid walls? 16-34. 

467. What is glame in the universe ? 12-24. 

468. What is the Law of Glame as to PUL ? 4-17. 

469. In the ultimate process of development, when Atoms have 
thrown off their PUL life in the act of creating souls, all atoms must retain 
the two laws of Glame and MOT, which alone produce vegetation. ' What is 
the destiny of the orbs of the sky ? 

470. Acting under this well proved law what must be the influence 
of the universe on the soul, after it is released from the body ? 7-24. 

LESSON XL VIII. 

471. When PUL leaves a planet, what two laws govern its Atoms? 
4-10. 

472. Under such conditions, when the planet has given vip its PUL 
in the Divine commission of creating Souls, and the Souls have passed to 
their attractions in space, what must result from the restless laws remaining ? 
20-60. 

473. Under the common movements of physical laws, how soon would 
a planet dissolve? 7-31. 

474. Why must all suns eventually pass through planet life ? 24-70. 

475. Assuming heaven to be a mass of matter greater in bulk than all 
the worlds in space put together, why must all Atoms having PUL fly 
from Heaven ? 20-70. 

476. Why must all Soul-life be irresistibly drawn toward Heaven? 
20-60. 

477. Why must all PUL-less Atoms be attracted through space to 
Heaven ? 20-50. 



THE FIVE HUNDEED PROBLEMS. 33 

47S. Assuming that PUL-less Atoms are capable only of vegetation, 
and that the absence of PUL prevents animal growth, what must be the 
material life in Heaven ? 4-30. 

479. Under the law of attraction wherever PUL is, Atoms, Molecules, 
and particles tend toward each other. Explain why all planetary orbs must 
be hollow? 12-3o. 

480. Assuming electricity to be without heat except when it produces 
friction or causes chemical action ; and accepting the theory that insulated 
electricity, and that which is capable of generation are conditions of PUL- 
mass attached to Atoms ; what attributes of electricity must be lacking in 
Soul-life? 16-40. 

LESSON XLTX. 

481. Why is the theory of positive and negative electricity unsound? 
16-50. 

482. If PUL is the motive of all life, tending to create the Soul in 
the vegetable Hesh of man, and PUL-mass, or mechanical electricity (as seen 
in the clouds and in mercantile use) is an accumulation of PUL-Atoms sep- 
arated from their purpose, would not the very essence of their purpose cause 
them to be urged to a re-distribution among general Atoms, thus restoring 
an equilibrium? Explain. 11-17. 

483. When electricity is freed what becomes of it ? 9-22. 

484. Owing to the inconceivable number of changes in the combina- 
tions of Molecules, all grades of human and animal life came into existence ; 
there being no shape imaginable which does not live. But one grade of life 
is not evolved from another ; nor is one race of man the outgrowth of 
another. Intellectual improvement is not radical exchange. The Indian 
may be educated, but under the most favoring circumstances civilized man 
would not be evolved. Inter-marriage produces nothing higher that the 
sum of two conditions ; as two metals produce one of intermediate value. 
All life came into existence at once, but in larger size than we now see it, 
owing to the super-abundance of PUL, much of which has become Soul-life, 
and passed to its eternal home. In the chaos of life, all suffered. For 
every human being that grew to maturity, millions were overwhelmed, until 
the conditions were in equipoise. Man's superiority, and not man himself, 



34 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME ONE. 



has been the evolution of the ages. All this is well proved in the common 
history of the earth. Animals of enormous size no longer exist. What then 
is the destiny of animal life, including insects, birds, fish, beasts, and the 
flesh of man ? 20-100. 

485. What is the destiny of vegetation ? 7-30. 

486. With what is a drop of blood charged in addition to its chemical 
parts? 2-10. 

487. How do you satisfy yourself that the happiness of the Soul is or 
is not its chief destiny ? 20-60. 

488. Of what would such happiness consist ? 12-40. 

489. If God has found pleasure in the construction of the universe, 
would it be reasonable to suppose that Soul-life would take pleasure in some 
measure of activity ? 8-30. 

490. Draw a word picture of the life of the Soul in Heaven. 100- 
300. 

LESSON L. 

491. After all PUL has become Soul-life and all suns and planets 
have been called home to the centre of the universe, do you think God will 
send new worlds into space to repeat the history of the skies ? 8-35. 

492. Assuming the law of gravity to be the law of PUL and Glame, 
or that Glame attracts PUL and Heaven draws the Soul to itself exactly in 
the same way that gravity attracts any object capable of evolving electricity, 
would the Soul in leaving the earth be drawn to any intermediate world? 
9-28. 

493. If so, what must be the conditions of that world? 10-40. 

494. Accepting the theory that a vast majority of human beings are 
endowed with imperfect or unworthy Souls, and, in the wasteful profusion 
of Nature, are resolved to matter to be cast and re-cast in better molds until 
the law of rectitude shall triumph, what must follow dealh ? 28-70. 

495. Is consciousness of earth and earthly ambitions, hope, and loves, 
necessary to happiness hereafter? 12-25. 

496. If not, what is the difference between the triumphant resurrec- 
tion of the Soul, and annihilation ? 20-70. 

497. A noble horse, galled under a life of continued torments, dies ; 



THE FIVE HUNDRED PROBLEMS. 35 

another noble horse is born and takes his place, but his life is all pleasure 
and joy; how can the first be happy in the second? And, likewise, how can 
a human Soul forget earth and its existence, and be happy in a life to come? 
20-60. 

408. Apart from the Bible, how do you satisfy yourself that the Soul, 
after death, does or does not pass at once to a consciousness of happiness ? 
25-50. 

499. How do you satisfy yourself that there is not a personal devil? 
20-60. 

500. Apart from all religions, except that of AE, or Nature's God, 
what must the Soul attain in this world, in order to be entitled to life after 
death? 50-100. 

End of First Examination. 

All subsequent examinations must be based upon these questions, or 
variations. If you find the examination too hard for you, it is an evidence 
of the distance which you have to travel. If any one question enchains 
your thoughts, you are a philosopher to that extent. If you find many of 
them following you in your spare moments, and seeking to be pondered on, 
there is no doubt as to your nature. The thoughtful man is a philosopher. 

The five himdred questions embrace every problem of every age since 
the world began, whose assumptions have not been discarded by universal 
consent. They reach into every department of science, except that of 
psychological pedantry, whose dry bones rustle in the aimless breezes of the 
mind's graveyard. To answer correctly, or half correctly, these great ques- 
tions, is to be the triumph of your life. 

End of Tome One; oi:, The Five Hundred Problems. 

SPECIAL NOTICE ! 

For rules regarding Certificates of Merit, Certificates of Honor, Grad- 
uation in Philosophy, and the winning of the Great Diploma, as well as the 
attainment of the Degree, see the Rules of Graduation at the end of Tome 
Ten. 



TOME TWO. 

MAJOR PROBLEMS, 

WITH SUGGESTIONS. 

THE SECOND EXAMINATION. 

In this, the second examination, the minor problems are omitted, and 
the major problems brought to light. The answers that reach us are usually 
defective in the latter province. How they are deficient may appear from 
the following statement : — 

This course of study is for home thinking, and home investigation, and 
solely for self-improvement. The attempt to pass an examination, pure and 
simple, and for no other end than to pass it, for a reward, title, or degree, 
that must be empty unless merited, is not to be encouraged. In that effort 
a dry, pedantic book-worm might find technical answers which, from the 
standpoint of dictionary definitions, would be called correct ; yet, on the 
other hand, the mind of a Tyndall, Huxley, or Agassiz would make answers 
that would fairly teem with the spirit of philosophy. 

Take, as an example, the first question : What is a human being ? A 
student of the true philosophical spirit will write the question at the top of 
a page in some large blank book ; will then think it over daily in connection 
with other questions ; will, in the course of general reading, catch ideas and 
information that help to unfold the problem ; will think, develop, evolve 
knowledge ; establish comparisons, linger over thoughts and facts presented 
by his general reading, — and all persons read some, — until he will have a 
small essay prepared as an answer to the question . This essay must then be 
condensed to thirty words; a practice not only commendable but highly edu- 
cating, in that it trains the mind to make words valuable. We have seen an 
essay of one thousand words trimmed to twenty, and made great thereby. 

Suppose your answer to the first question should contain several hun- 
dred words; this, condensed to thirty, would be more valuable to you, for 
in condensing it you are compelled to weigh every word and every thought 
even. The greatest value is in the hard training and deep thinking neces- 

(36) 



THE 3IAJ0E PROBLEMS. 37 



sarv. It is well to retain the original essay ; and to send the answer to us. 
Remember that great scholars are inured to hard, exacting, plodding work, 
with pen and brain ; they are eager for deep study. 

Scholars who have received high marks in some university, often won- 
der why they are not regarded as they hoped to be by the scholarly class. 
It is not an evidence of your profound learning that the ignorant wonder at 
your abilities ; we know a school-master who was looked up to as a mental 
phenomenon, simply because he found an answer to a mathematical problem, 
which was afterwards discovered to be wrong. The gaping astonishment of 
a clientele is no indication of your genius, unless the general world is affected 
by your abilities. Does every year find you further advanced toward national 
fame ; or, if fame be not your seeking, toward a broader field of power and 
usefulness? Do you impress yourself upon the solid thought of mankind? 

If you are not accustomed to hard training and deep thinking, or have 
grown into looser habits since your earlier scholarship, you will not come 
easily into the next immediate steps in this course of Philosophy. The 
hasty will blame, but eventually our sturdier pupils will thank us for insist- 
ing upon exact scholarship. 

FIRST STEP. 

Requirements, a. The previous answers to the Five Hundred Ques- 
tions of the FIRST TOME, will be retained by us. They will be returned 
to you, if you desire ; but other answers must be forwarded in their stead, 
or the same returned in plainer handwriting, or in typewriting. In reading 
your answers, where the writing was careless or difficult to read, we were 
compelled to mark it as nothing. It requires a week to read, study, and 
estimate the answers to five hundred philosophical problems ; two assisting ; 
and if you choose to wTite carelessly, where a few minutes extra time w^ould 
insure carefulness, we cannot be blamed for passing the answers. 

6. We advise, but do not require, all pupils, whether they desire to 
graduate or not, to obtain a college marking on the problems of Tome One ; 
and then proceed to solve the Major Problems of this examination. 

c. In case any pupil decides to submit to us their answers to the Major 
Problems, a written notice must be forwarded in substance as follows : 
" To the President of Shaftesbury College, Washington, D. C. You are hereby 



38 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOFHY—TOME TWO. 

notified that I have carefully read the Procedure and requirements of the 
Second Tome ; that I heartily approve of your purpose and methods of ex- 
acting the highest Scholarship from Home Pupjils in Philosophy ; and I will 
endeavor to comjyly with all the requirements therein, to the end that I may in 
every way be benefited by the deeper education thereby residting. 



Sign full name, state and address. The foregoing must be copied in 
full. 

SECOND STEP. 

Requieements. a. Whether or not you elect or abandon the first 
examination, procure a record book of :not less than three hundred pages, 
each page to be as large as possible, and in no case smaller than seven by 
fourteen inches. 

b. Write at the top of each page in good red or carmine ink, the 
number in figures, of each question in the Fiest Tome, and the question 
after it. The Major problems are to be placed one only on the page ; but 
the Minor Problems may be written two to a page, the second question to be 
written half way down the page. If you desire, it is well to devote one 
page each to a question. This requires a book of five hundred pages, and it 
may prove bulky. One page to a question will please many who propose to 
make their work thorough. If you decide to write the Minor Problems two 
to a page, the book must contain at least three hundred |)ages. 

c. Glance daily at one or more of the questions you have written; 
and let no day pass without entering some fact or thought in the record 
book. Use a pencil at first, or write in black ink, upon thin paper caught 
at the inner edge of the book by a line of mucilage. At some subsequent 
time write youx fixed thoughts in black ink on the page itself. 

d. The entries in the record book are to be thoughts, ideas, theories, 
or facts gathered from reading or conversation. They come at unexpected 
moments; make a temporary minute at once. Weekly (not Sunday) papers 
often contain articles on science, or facts gleaned from greater works. Daily 
papers are sewers of public and private gossip ; Sunday papers are veritable 



THE MAJOn PROBLEMS. 39 



gush ; a man who reads either will waste the chief function of his brain. 
Weekly papers contain all the news ; and, as generally constructed, much of 
the free wealth of the world's literature and science, although their editors 
often are ignorant of the fact. Nearly every town has its public or private 
library ; or its kind hearted literatus who is only too glad to loan that 
special book which you may desire. 

e. This plan of acquiring and fixing knowledge leads to the grandest 
scholarship. It is not for a day, but for all time ; to be continued for years 
after you graduate from these studies ; to be independent of your degree, for 
the winning of that degree is not to mark the time when your mind is to 
cease improving. 

THIRD STEP. 

a. Separate the one hundred questions of the second examination, which 
constitute the major problems, from the five hundred questions of the first 
examination, consisting of all the problems, major and minor. 

6. On your record book retain all the members of the five hundred 
questions in their order ; and, in black ink, write the numbers of the one 
hundred questions of the second examination immediately after the red ink 
number. Thus each minor problem has its red ink numbers, and each major 
problem has two numbers. As an example, question 21 would be the sixth 
major problem, and have the number G in black ink. 

c. The following are the numbers of the major problems, all the omitted 
numbers being of minor problems. 

NUMBERS OF MAJOR PROBLEMS. 

1, 2, 3, 4, 21, 22, 31, 32, 37, 38, 41, 42, 51, 52, 53, 54, 63, 64, Qo, 
66, 69, 70, 73, 74, 70, 80, 85, 86, 07, 98, 103, 104, 100, 110, 110, 120, 
125, 126, 141, 142, 157, 158, 161, 162, 167, 168, 185, 186, 189, 100, 207, 
208, 213, 214, 227, 228, 230, 240, 263,264, 265, 266, 275, 276, 270,280, 
280, 290, 307, 308, 309, 310, 325, 326, 345, 346, 371, 372, 385, 386, 389 
390, 405, 406, 409, 410, 415, 416, 445, 446, 461, 462, 473, 474, 485, 486, 
405, 406, 499, 500. 



40 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

SECOND EXAMINATION. 
THE ONE HUNDRED MAJOR PROBLEMS. 

Directions. The figures at the end of each question, show the limit to 

be observed in the answer ; which must not be too long or too short. The 
limits are not the same as in the first examination. Thus at the end of 
question 1, in the second examination, the figures 30-70 appear. This indi- 
cates that the answer must not contain less than thirty, nor more than seventy- 
words. 

The figures at the beginning of each question present, first, the number 
of the major problem ; and second, in parentheses, the original number of the 
first examination. These separate numbers should always be preserved. 

In sending answers, do not repeat the questions. Use both numbers. 
Write very plainly, on one side only, on paper 7 by 11 inches. Leave one 
blank line between each answer. When these rules are not observed, or the 
writing is not plain, the answers are considered as not having been made. 

On page one of your answers, copy and sign the following : 

STATEMENT. 

My full address is, 



The answers following are all my own. I have never had direct help 
from any person, nor do I use the language of others. 



[Name] 



Bind or stitch the answers together in order that we may preserve them 
as a manuscript volume. 

SPECIAL NOTICE. 

For rules regarding Certificates of Merit, Certificates of Honor, Gradu- 
ation in Philosophy, and the winning of the Great Diploma, as well as the 
attainment of the Degree, see the Rules of Graduation, at the end of Tome 
Ten. 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 41 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 

LESSON LT. 

1. (1). What is a human being? 30-70. 

There are four classes of answers to questions of this kind : purely 
physical, religious, scientific and philosophical. A philosophical answer is 
creative; the others are generally reflexive. We desire all that makes an 
answer complete. By philosophical, we do not mean fanciful, weird or inven- 
tive. Every human being should be willing to contribute from theresources 
of his nature, something to aid in enlightening the truth seekers of the 
world ; and that something should be substantial ; not a filmy possibility, nor 
a mere probability, nor a strong ray of encouragement as an ethical guide — but 
a fact seen, or pointed to by a concurrence of probabilities. Some of the 
non-christian religions that are springing up to-day are beautiful specimens 
of guess-work, of would-be's, or of gauze fabrics, without a single tangible 
thread in their texture. The soul, standing on the threshold of the unknown, 
shrinks from such fairy shrouds. 

2. (2). What is a beast? 20-50. 

Questions, because they are hard to answer, stimulate thought. A com- 
parison of this and the former, will force the answers into philosophical 
channels. Is it right to assume that shape declares the animal and the 
human ? Why should intelligence be the criterion ? Many tribes of men are 
less intelligent than the noble animals. Try morality ; yet all men sin ; 
while some animals, as the horse, cow and sheep, are higher moral beings. 
Try reason ; what do we know of the reasoning faculties of animals ? They 
are dumb, or partly so ; their occupations do not require the use of an 
extensive vocabulary ; they reason as far as they know, and man does not 
do even that. His wisdom is borrowed, he adds to what he finds, his nature 
lies that way. " I had a horse who learned, by association of sound and 
sight the names of one hundred objects, and he remembered them. From 
what I could observe, I believe he grew more intelligent, by reason of this 
process ; if so, the convolutions of his cerebrum (the human part of the 
animal), must have deepened and grey matter must have been deposited."* 

*Ediniind Shaftesbury. 



42 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

It is very clear that the cerebrum or human part of any so-called beast may 
be increased in size and the power of reasoning made stronger. That animals 
do reason, there can be no doubt. A so-called beast with cerebrum, cerebellum, 
and medulla oblongata, is in every physical, mental and moral sense, a human 
being. What is a human being ? Many beasts are humane. What is a 
beast ? Many so-called human beings are mere beasts. Behind the curtain 
that separates one species of creation from another, there is a chasm as 
impenetrable as the sky. We do not know the beasts and perhaps they do 
not know us. In the subsequent Tomes we publish the Shaftesbury System 
of Philosophy, which takes a decided stand on these problems, — one and all. 
That you have different views, will not affect your standing, so that the views 
are reasonable. Your opinion and argument may be equal to that of any 
other person who ever lived. For this reason your mind should be free to 
act apart from the pronounced views of any person. 

LESSON LII. 

3. (3). What is vegetation? 25-60. 

It is an interesting question to determine how far man is non- vegetable. 
The embryo of the child, of microscopic size, was a particle of vegetation. 
By the process of hunger and feeding, other particles were added, but none 
that were not formed in some plant. Man adds to his body by eating food ; 
to not eat is death. If he were to subsist on fish, fowl and animal life, he 
would be eating the bodies that subsisted on vegetation. Let all plant life 
cease, and fish, fowl and animal life would die. Man has bones ; trees have 
trunks, limbs and branches. Man has skin and hair ; the tree has bark and 
fibre. Man has lungs ; all plants have leaves, which breathe air. Man has 
blood, which circulates to carry the particles that build up the body ; trees 
and all plant life have sap, for the same purpose. The blood of the plant is 
yellow and is suited to the duties it has to perform ; the red blood of man is 
yellow in fact, as the microscope will show, and is suited to its duties. The 
growth of the body of man, as of plants, is due primarily to the law of 
capillary attraction. Man is a moving plant, and has machinery to direct his 
movements. Animals who lie dormant are close to plant life ; the action of 
the heart being scarcely perceptible. It may be said then that the heart is 
required to supply the forces of movable life. The blood has a partial cir- 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 43 



culation, under the law of capillary attraction. The fibres of the roots of 
plants select the food of the plant from the soil ; the fibres of the nerve life 
of the stomach do the same thing for the body; both discard useless or refuse 
matter in exactly the same way. 

4. (4). What is instinct ? 40-GO. 

Discussions under these Major Problems are intended to stimulate the 
minds of our pupils. In no case must our language be used as answers; for 
it may be the opposite of the answers required. Thus the cut and dried 
definitions of the books might be given and no good attained on the part of 
the copyist. The answer of the present question is an example of our mean- 
ing. The dictionary tells us that instinct is a natural inward impulse ; 
unconscious, involuntary, or unreasoning prompting to any mode of action, 
whether bodily or mental, without a distinct apprehension of the end or 
object to be accomplished, — words that have more sound than information. 
Sir W. Hamilton says : "an instinct is an agent which performs blindly and 
ignorantly a work of intelligence and knowledge," — a thought of great 
strength and beauty but not philosophically correct. Darwin pays : "the 
resemblance between what originally was a habit, and an instinct becomes so 
close as not to be distinguished," — an approach to the law of life. All these 
definitions tell us what instinct does, not what it is ; and this is true of most 
definitions. A philosophical answer must describe instinct, and its operation 
is but a part of the description. 

LESSON LIII. 

5. (^1). How do you satisfy yourself that you have or have not pre- 
viously existed as some liuman being? 70-120. 

G. (-2). How do you satisfy yourself that Homer, Virgil, Dante, 
and Shakespeare may or may not have been the same Soul-life ? 30-70. 

These two questions, while belonging to the same class of inquiry, are 
widely different in their purport. Do not for a moment imagine that the 
Shaftesbury Philosophy asserts that we have previously lived in some other 
form. The present questions invite an investigation and discussion of the 
probabilities. We must lay aside all beliefs, in seeking to get at the truth. 

We know that present man is an addition to past man. The healthy 
son of intellectual parents is more readily educated than the healthy son of 



44 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TWO 

igaorant parents. Form, nature, habits, and tendencies are transmitted. 
A great musician married a barmaid ; their child was not musically inclined; 
he married ; his son was a barkeeper ; but his son, the great grandson of the 
musician, had all the musical genius of his ancestor, although not one rela- 
tive between them had given the slightest evidence of such genius. How 
did that gift come to light, after its long burial ? Every person has the 
power to so subject his animal nature as to develop a partial clairvoyant 
condition ; whereupon scenes of former days come back to him. 

Greatness in special talents is successive, not contemporaneous. The 
poets of the world have followed one another, and close together. If, as 
may be possible, the spirit leaves the body before death, or is caught imme- 
diately upon death by a growing body, many successions of greatness may 
be explained. Frederick the Great died eight years before Napoleon the 
Great was a soldier. Shakespeare died when Milton was eight years old. 
Frederick and Napoleon were the two greatest warriors of modern times ; 
Shakespeare and Milton were the two greatest poets of all the Christian 
centuries. Every human being who subdues the physical supremacy of the 
body has an awakening within of a newer, fairer, grander life ; another self, 
laden with the heritage of other times. What are they and whence are 
they ? It is true that cited cases sometimes prove nothing. 

LESSON LIY. 

7. (31). What does Science show must have been the order of crea- 
tion on earth ? 40-90. 

We think the solution of this problem may be found in the growth of 
the lower life of to-day. All flesh may live on flesh and vegetation; the 
latter not on the former. Flesh is founded upon vegetation ; and could not 
have preceded it. It either was created simultaneously with, or after vege- 
tation. If at the same time, it must have perished instantly. It is true that 
all Nature teemed with life of every character, and all forms of creation 
sprang into being. The only question is, was one form of life dependent 
upon any other form ? Was vegetation first, man second, fowls third, fish 
fourth, the brute creation fifth, insects sixth ? What relation of dependency 
did one bear to the other? 



THE 3IAJ0R PROBLEMS. 45 



8. (32). Was naaa evolved from aay lesser tyj^e of creation, or 
created outright by some fiat? 70-150. 

The account in the Bible may be strictly true and agree with any view 
Science chooses to take. To say that God created man out of the dust of 
the earth, does not fix any fact except that man was created, and all know 
that. Every particle of matter in the composition of every being may be 
traced to the soil of the earth. Man must have come into existence in one 
of the four following ways : 

a. Either God took actual soil from the ground and made and molded 
it into a human body by a miracle ; 

h. Or man evolved from a lesser type of creation ; 

c. Or the germs of the human body were let loose in matter and 
sprang into being as soon as the conditions were favorable ; 

d. Or all atomic life is charged with the development of the Soul, and 
has spent millions of years in working up from the chaos of matter, through 
the over-growth of vegetation and flesh, to the higher types of moral man 
and the attainment of its end. 

LESSON LV. 

9. (37). Is God a being, a person, a spirit, a power, an essence, or a 
law ? 40-80. 

If God is a law only. He is no more to us than the power of gravita- 
tion ; and soul-life hereafter must exist under exactions that have no source. 
A power is a larger existence than a law. An essence is still larger, and 
implies a ruler whose presence is diffuse, and may be felt rather than known. 
If God is a person, we may connect the Bible statement, and assume that 
the framework of the soul, man's body, is made after the image of its Crea- 
tor, who is in shape like man. This is the most satisfactory of all beliefs, 
for then God may be known and seen and loved. There are men we know 
who are so lovable that we have often hoped God might be known in the 
hereafter as having the image of man. If He is a person, and if the 
accepted theories of most religions are true, that these bodies of ours will 
rise in the flesh perfected, then it must follow that God is a person of flesh. 
Is such a doctrine tenable ? Or is He a spirit, — a distinct, visible life, 
having a more concentrated existence than an essence ? Or, finally, is God 



46 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

a being ? — sonae form of life, having shape, size, limits of occupation, and 
a place of residence, from which He rules the universe ? Is His rule lim- 
ited? Is He at war with any power? Are there other rulers who defy 
Him? Can such a being rule a distant orb by any known laws ? Are there 
certain possibilities of man not yet discovered, whereby communication 
might be established between this world and others ? 

10. (38). In early life what was your first idea of God? 30-40. 
The importance of this question is greater than would appear at first 

thought. If there is any such thing as natural religion, or innate religion, 
it must descend to the new-born generations. Instinct may be to habit what 
natural religion is to ancestral belief. The great difficulty of solving this 
question is the fact that outside impressions partly affect the innate religious 
spirit of the child ; yet, in spite of this, there is great value to be attached 
to the testimony of children. As we grow older we forget our earliest 
ideas. 

LESSON LYI. 

11. (41). If Grod is a person, how do you explain omnipresence? 
30-60. 

It may be that all our beliefs are wrong. It may be that those whose 
faith is founded upon a rock will wake up in the hereafter to more reality 
than they have ever dreamed of. And yet it may be that the acceptable 
soul is to be evolved on earth, and will dwell liere in a perfected body, made 
so by man's discovery of the laws of perpetual life. 

12. (42). Is God material in whole or in part ? 12-30. 

By material we mean made of the substance of the earth. Is His a 
body of any of the chemical elements, molecules or atoms ? If so. He 
must be subject to the laws of matter ; He could not enter a room except as 
we can by the open door. 

LESSON LVII. 

13. (51). What impression is made upon your mind by the theory that 
you are, always have been, and always will be in the ever present? 30-70. 

We only know the present. The past is brought into our minds by 
making it for a moment the present. To-morrow is cut off. Do you believe 
that, if you were to die at this instant, you would depart from the still ever 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 47 



present. Even if you were to lie unconscious in your grave for ten thou- 
sand years, and were then to awake, would not instant death at this moment 
seem but a lapse of a second of time before the next awakening ? If we 
sleep soundly from Monday to Saturday, would not Saturday seem but 
Tuesday ? Do you believe that a person is ever unconscious to himself ? 
You are alive to-day; you are in your grave one million years, and awake 
to consciousness ; will it not seem like one continuous existence, a minute 
only between ? 

14. (52). How many religions have you ever heard or read about, 
and what are their chief characteristics? 50-120. 

This question will require some reading. Call on any educated clergy- 
man ; he will start you on the right road. It is necessary for you to know 
something of all the religions of the world. 

LESSON LVIII. 

15. (53). In what eight respects do all religions, whether Savage, 
Pagan, Mohammedan or Christian, perfectly agree ? 40-80. 

At one time, and until recently in the world's history, the chief study 
of mankind was man's destiny hereafter. There are eight agreements in all 
the religions of the world. Your best plan is to submit the question in 
writing to as many clergymen as you know, or dare ask (some are narrow), 
and ask to be directed to the latest or best books on the subject. Every 
minister is familiar with the books required. They are many and varied. 
By far the best method, is to meet them personally and discuss the question 
in ten different meetings, each person agreeing to read some, between the 
meetings. We invite discussion of all these questions. 

16. (54). What is the necessary origin of all religions? 60-80. 
This is a question which every theologian, every church and every 

thinking man must face sooner or later. It is not a question, the solution 
of which is to do the damage that is feared, nor should the solution be de- 
layed because of fear. As long as the human body bears evidence of such 
marvelous construction, and shows in every line an unerring design ; as long 
as flowers bloom ; so long will all worthy human beings believe in the ex- 
istence of an ooanipotent God. And wherever you find an infidel, you will 
see a floating face, a mask, rather than a reflection of the being within. 
4 



48 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TWO. 

Theologians of to-may make their greatest mistake by teaching opin- 
ions, and in suppressing enlargement of thought. If on the other hand 
they taught neither creed nor tenets, the religious nature would assert itself 
and demand them. Unchain the churches from all dominant beliefs, and 
men will rally to create new ones. You cannot destroy the religious hun- 
ger of the human race. 

Having come to the front in every tribe and nation on earth, and in 
every period of the world's history, it is absurd to think that it is now 
about to depart forever. If every ruler and every religious teacher liv- 
ing, should conspire to-day to abolish all churches, destroy the Sabbath, and 
order all religion off the face of the globe, the mighty spirit of man's wor- 
ship of God would reappear like a great ocean unveiled by the passing fog. 
An honest inquiry into the origin of religion can do no harm. 

LESSON LIX. 

17. (63). Assuming that the Creator gave three laws to Atoms — 
attraction, repulsion, and revolution, — and gave a Divine mission to Atomic 
life, how do you explain the process of all growth ? 100-160. 

18. (64). What is a chemical atom? 20-40. 

LESSOX LX. 

19. (65). What is a chemical molecule ? 20-40. 

20. (66). What is a chemical element ? 20-40 

These four questions present a connected line of study. Xaturally the 
first recourse is to a dictionary, then to some enclycopedia, and finally to 
chemistry, in arriving at the answers. We doubt if any chemistry or phys- 
ics states the information required by Question 17. The Shaftesbury Phil- 
osophy maintains, and proves as far as proof is possible, that all existence of 
a material nature is traceable to a single Atom. This Atom is spelled with 
a capital A to distinguish it from the other uses of the word. The Shaftes- 
bury Atom is an ultimate indivisible particle. A chemical atom is a com- 
pound particle. In general usage an atom is any small portion of matter ; 
as "there was not an atom of anything to eat in the house." The Atomic 
Philosophy has engaged the attention of the world for two or three thousand 
years; it simply claims that all matter originates from ultimate indivisible 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 49 



particles. On the other hand there is but one other theory which asserts 
that matter is infinitesimally divisible ; but this latter claim has very few 
supporters, while the science of growth, as well as all reason, are against it. 
If there is an ultimate indivisible Atom, there need be but one kind to 
account for the multiform processes from which all life and growth come. 
Assume that all the universe at one time consisted of Atoms merely, and let 
these Atoms be charged with the two laws of attraction and repulsion, chaos 
would fill the sky ; add revolution to these particles, and at once the two 
greater laws would become intricate, ever restlessly making life. 

Apart from Atomic union, there is the chemical life, described as con- 
sisting of atoms, molecules and elements. 

LESSON LXI. 

21. (69). What evidence have you of a special adjustment of natural 
laws to suit the needs of life? 80-140. 

The Philosopher must sooner or later determine in his own mind one of 
two great questions ; has the purpose of life drawn to it an adjustment of 
the natural laws ; or has nature been adjusted by special design to suit the 
needs of life? The inclination of the earth's axis produces the seasons. 
Other planets are not so favored. The earth is drawn to the sun and held 
from it. Suppose it did not revolve; it would have seasons; but, if it 
traveled about the sun, winter and night would be three months long ; sum- 
mer and day, spring and dawn, autumn and twilight, each three mouths' long ; 
making the contrasts too severe. Man would sleep in a dormant condition 
through the winter. Suppose the earth revolved as now, but that its 
axis perpetually faced the sun in its largest ocean ; the earth's inhabitants 
would be a different class of beings, if indeed they could exist at all. If the 
equator were continually to the sun, eternal winter would prevail in those 
great countries where man is not progressive. 

Take up the study of physiology ; you can borrow books in your 
locality. There are twenty-four remarkable processes, which we shall 
expect you to find. In all there are one hundred and thirty marvels of 
accident in providing man with the possibilities of existence. Find them all. 

22. (70). Is cold water heavier than warm water, and how do you 
explain it? 40-70. 



50 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

The mere explanation that cold water contracts and therefore gives 

smaller compass and greater weight, only states an occurrence or a process. 

Why does cold contract? Some things are colder and lighter than others. 

What is cold? Absence — no, a diminution, — of heat. Ice has some heat at 

32° and less at zero, and less at 40° below zero ; the heat is diminished. 

Heat vibrates the Atoms; how does a less degree of vibration make an 

object either more compact or heavier? Water at 33° is heavier than at 

any higher temperature ; yet at 32° is lighter as ice than is water at 200 

degrees ; that is, ice will float on hot water till it melts. Is that a special 

adjustment ? Yet, if ice were heavier than water, as according to the law of 

cooling it should be, it would sink to the bottom of the river ; and the top 

again freezing would sink, until the river was solid ; too much ice to thaw 

out in summer. The salt ocean does not freeze, and man may voyage across 

it ; the river does freeze and man may walk across it. Take the law of 

gravity out of water, and we would have no clouds, no rain, no replenishing 

springs, no pure water. 

LESSON LXII. 

23. (73). What is the action of gravity ? 40-90. 

Very few questions are as hard to answer as this. We do not ask for 
the law of gravitation; that, we know, is the attraction of one object toward 
another. If two bodies as large as the earth were hung in space, and noth- 
ing else existed, an influence would be exerted to cause these bodies to 
approach each other; at first so slight that it might require a million years 
to move one per cent, of the distance ; but steadily they would move in a 
straight line, centre to centre, until with the speed of light they would meet 
exactly half way. Their coming together would not be a crash, but a sun- 
burst of fire. The largest meteor striking our atmosphere, is turned to fire 
by frictional heat. If an object, one-tenth the size of the earth, were to fall 
toward it, the law of gravity would be exerted by both ; the earth being 
drawn out of its course. So when a man falls from a balloon to the 
ground, he draws the earth to him in the proportion of his relative weight. 
If two men were to leave the two extremes of the moon and be hurled to the 
earth, although hundreds of miles apart at the start, they would be 
attracted toward each other, and would be in each others arms before 
reaching this planet. 



THE 3IAJ0R PROBLEMS. 61 



All the planets of the solar system are revolving about the sun. We 
are told in physics that gravitation holds them to their system, which is 
true ; and that the law of centrifugal force keeps them from going into the 
sun, an explanation that is both unreasonable and untenable. There is no 
such thing, as centrifugal force ; and it will be abandoned ere long, as the 
claim of the existence of centripetal force has already been. The latter is 
familiarly illustrated by a ball tied to a string ; if made to revolve the ball 
seeks to fly from the centre; and this seeking is called centrifugal ; when in 
fact it is string force. The ball without the string would go as a stone 
would go, wherever it was thrown. The string determines its direction and 
limit of movement. But the absurdity is still more apparent when we are 
told that the ball is held to the hand by the law of centripetal force ; a 
seeking of the ball toward a centre. The string alone holds the ball, and if 
it happens to break, what phase of the law of centripetal force will cause the 
ball to seek a centre? It is just as reasonable to assert that these two laws 
apply to a calf running around a pole and held to a certain orbit by a rope. 
The earth is undoubtedly attracted to the sun, but there is no similarity 
between such attraction and centripetal force ; for a ball held by a string 
and let loose will fly off as if thrown ; while the earth if equally free would 
go directly toward the sun; thus causing the law to contradict itself. 
Gravity is exerted by the sun toward the earth ; but what keeps the earth in 
a circle ? Centrifugal force does not, for that seeks to send an object in a 
straight line not from the centre at all, but from the circumference. Place 
a marble on a stick six feet long, and swing the end of the stick forward ; 
the marble is impelled in a straight line from the end of the stick. So is a 
drop of water from the rim of a wheel. 

If the earth was thrown from the sun as a drop of liquid, (an impossible 
action) it would have left it in a straight line and have returned to it in a 
straight line. At no time could an orbit path have been developed. The 
centrifugal theory has not been accepted by the great scientists ; as it cannot 
be sustained by argument or example. 

Likewise the attraction called cohesion, whereby molecules are said to 
be kept together. Such an attraction cannot be proved, and experiment dis- 
proves it on every hand. The molecules of iron are said to be held together 
by the law of cohesion or adhesion ; we break the iron ; but the molecules 



62 n03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

are strangers henceforth. Attraction of gravity is not so easily destroyed. 
Cohesion is simply a fixed position of the particles, more or less inter-woven 
and made strong in mass ; fire often welds them by interweaving the parti- 
cles. So ice is said to derive its solidity from molecular attraction, when it 
is simply the partial interweaving of particles coming into a state of rest and 
clinging to each other. 

24. (74). By what process can gravity operate ; or, how is it possible 
for one object to draw another to itself ? 40-60. 

Gravity cannot be a blind law ; nor can it operate by an intangible pro- 

LESSON LXIII. 

25. (79). How do you satisfy yourself that the earth is or is not solely 
intended as the dwelling place of man? 60-100. 

We know that the earth is part of the solar system, consisting of the sun 
and the bodies of matter which revolve about it, held under its influence by 
the attraction of gravitation. That the stars are suns is probable ; that the 
nearest of them are many times larger than our own sun is true ; but that 
they have planets revolving about them is not known, and it seems probable 
that they are merely light givers. They are so enormous in size that their 
heat must be intense. The moon is a waste and barren satellite ; apart from 
the Bible account, its creation is manifestly to light the earth at night. The 
stars may have been designed for the same purpose. They are about the 
earth in every direction ; and this planet is either in the centre of them or 
they have no limit in number or in space. The latter theory is contrary to 
the evidence of law or sun life. Time may be conceived as a succession of 
events, and eternity as a never ending succession ; but pure space is pure 
nothing. The stars may be as numerous as the sands of the sea ; so are the 
particles in a drop of water ; but all matter and all spirit-life have their 
limits somewhere; else we are hemmed in by a past without beginning, a 
future without ending, an infinitesimal smallness without a unit, and an 
infinitesimal greatness without a boundary. Time can have no limits ; 
matter must. 

There may be other systems like ours, set like gems in the archipelago 
of the sky ; but, unless the universe is without design, the orbs that support 
life are few. In our own planetary system, there may be others besides the 



THE 31 A JOE PROBLEMS. 53 



earth ; but those between us and the sun are too hot, and could only grow 
pigmies ; while the giant planets must grow, if at all, giants of coarsest grain . 
To speculate among the distant suns, if they have planets of proportioned size, 
their average human being could sit astride our earth, and throw pebbles to 
the moon. 

26. (80). Accepting the theory that the body of man is of the earth, 
and the mind and soul are phospho-electrical, has man any existence apart 
from the earth ? State reasons. 60-100. 

This opens the whole inquiry as to the future dwelling place of man, on 
the one hand ; and the material composition of the mind, soul and body on 
the other. The elements of the body are from the earth and resolvable to the 
earth ; the elements of the mind and soul are as evanescent as the mental power 
of a strong brain made idiotic. Where has it gone, and what went ? The 
physical brain shows scars, and mind seems only the intelligence of matter ; 
and matter is restored to the earth which gave it. Or, if something in the 
material earth has borne into being an immortal soul, will that soul event- 
ually discard this planet ? If not, will it come here to live as a material 
body raised after death, and made death-proof against accident or design ? 
or, will it dwell here as a spirit? or elsewhere? or, will immortality be dis- 
covered by some future race ? 

LESSON LXIV. 

27. (85). What is Consciousness ? 25-70. 

28. {S(S). What is a train of thought ? 30-55. 

Whenever there is a feeling of being, there is consciousness ; nor is it 
confined to creatures that move. Phospho-electricity is a thinkalile combina- 
tion. It is known that every part of the body where gray matter is found, 
has power to think. In animals, that which we call instinct may be con- 
sciousness. The brain may reason, but consciousness does not ; it simply 
experiences the sensation of knowing. The seeds of plant life, the flowers of 
all vegetation, are producers of phospho-electricity. The grain of wheat is 
an exact production of the human body in all its elements, even to the 
proper proportions. The almond nut is the brain and nervous system of 
man; the walnut is in shape, a miniature brain — pictures of the two looking 
alike at a casual glance. The brain gives birth to the soul ; the seeds of 
flowers furnish the substance that makes the brain ; between the beauty of a 



54 HOME COURSE IN PEILOSOPHY—TOME TWO. 

perfect flower and the glory of an immortal soul, there is not an unleapable 

gulf. 

LESSON LXV. 

29. (97). Accepting the theory that sound is vibratory movement 
in mass of any matter, how do you explain the action of hearing? 40-60. 

30. (98). Is the sense of hearing the result of the action of sound 
upon the brain, or was the faculty of hearing created by design? 10-40. 

When two questions are placed together without notes or comments 
between, they should be answered as carefully as though each question had 
been discussed. The discussions are to be regarded as suggestions only, 
which may be right or wrong ; they are in no sense answers to our 
questions. Are all the senses the result of the action produced by the meth- 
ods of matter in approaching man ; or were they created by design to enable 
man to interpret life about him? Would the activity of light create eyes in all 
their wonders of perfection, and the non-activity of light — darkness — destroy 
the eyes ? Is there latent in every drop of blood a power of unfolding active 
forms to meet the demands of every phase of existence ? 

LESSON LXVI. 

31. (103). What impels the root of a tree in dry soil to go a long 
distance for water? 25-40. 

32. (202). What process akin to taste impels the root of the 

onion and the root of the beet in the same soil to select separate foods? 

40-60. 

LESSON LXVII. 

33. (109). Is the sense of touch a sense of development purely? 
12-30. 

34. (110). Describe the process by which a man dwelling in the dark 
would become blind ? 20-40. 

LESSON LXVIII. 

35. (119). Was man, when the species of man came into existence, 
much lower in the scale of civilization than his average has been for the last 
three thousand years ? State reasons. 50-100. 

36. 120. How do you account for the origin and existence of savage 
men? 50-100. 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 55 



Questions 33 and 34 refer to the great problem, whether the inherent 
nature of man causes his own development, or is he made and endowed by 
some design acting without himself. These we have hinted at in previous 
discussions. They are in line with the inquiry in questions 35-36. 

What is known as the Darwinian theory, that man evolved from lower 
animal types, is not affected by these questions. Any pupil is free to 
believe in that theory if he can make it appear reasonable. An opinion, 
merely for the sake of having an opinion, is no adornment to the mind ; and 
in the setness of opinions, regardless of reason, many persons are made 
narrow and shallow. Some do not believe the Darwinian theory because it 
is shocking ; others do, because it points to the probability of a more glorious 
man. In the succeeding Tomes we shall lay down a succession of laws, and 
abide by their conclusions. 

But apart from that, no matter what his origin, man became man in 
some way and at some time. If he was created outright, he must have been 
in as perfect a condition as now ; and his nature fell. We know him well 
for three thousand years, and there are but few of him of whom we can be 
proud. The Greeks were the brainiest people who ever lived ; the Romans 
emulated their example. Christ and his followers were surrounded by 
humanity as full of nature as may be found in Palestine to-day. Europe 
was then peopled by tribes and hordes of barbarians; cruel, criminal and 
wicked as man can ever be. The most moral people that ever lived occupied 
New England in the fifty years from 1700 to 1750. When their influence 
shall have died out, if ever, the bestial barbarism of the middle ages, now 
prevalent in part of Europe, will overwhelm America. Which way is man 
tending ? If he seeks the mountains his better nature is roughened and 
barbarism develops. If he gossips or reads the daily papers for gossip he 
grows wormy through and through the core of his soul. If he seeks for 
goodness and peace, mercy and love, he will find all, and will grow nobler 
day by day. Is man then the creature of his own making ? Did his life 
within develop his senses, his shape, his culture, his better and his meaner 
self? 

If the human race has not been cut off at any time in the past, the non- 
discovery of America, the simplicity of the early language, and the limited 
scope of man's operations, point clearly to his existence as a civilized being 



56 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

for not more than six thousand years ; probably less. Pre-historic man 
was a barbarian. Nine-tenths of humanity to-day are felons and would be 
pronounced guilty of every offense known to the decalogue, moral law, or the 
criminal code if the facts were known. Most of them would reek in crime, 
if left to their natures; for they are retarded in civilized countries by the 
strong arm of order. Whence came this degradation ? Has the good that 
lives in the hearts of some men and women, been working up and out through 
the long lapse of age ? Or is it the remnant of a better nature ? Which 
way is morality tending ? There can be no civilization that is not moral. 
The inventions of the age, if used as instruments of crime, would be bar- 
barous devices. The Gatling gun is a multiform tomahawk. 

LESSON LXIX. 

37. (1'^'5). Assuming that all life is made for the good of man, why 
are deadly serpents allowed to exist ? 25-60. 

38. (126). Why are poisons made to grow ? 25-60. 

There are three phases to this line of inquiry. Were these dangers 
created by design, and if so, for what purpose ? Or, is it possible that vege- 
tation and lower flesh creations, like man, are diverse, haviug the best good 
and the worst evil ? If so is it due to growth in every direction at once, 
matter being free to drift into every nature ? Or, is there a process of evolu- 
tion in lower life, the sweet and pure coming from the bad, or the reverse ? 

May man some day conquer the earth, kill out its vermin, neutralize its 
poisons, exterminate all savage beasts, and render death by accident impos- 
sible ? Is it God's intent that the body should die in every case ? 

LESSON LXX. 

39. (141). Assuming that the criminal disposition of humanity is 
stronger and weaker alternately in periods of seven years each, what duty 
does a person of criminal tendency owe himself ? 24-50. 

40. (142). How far is crime a disease ? 30-70. 

In war, thousands are slain ; in disease, life is often a mere thread ; in 
ignorance, sickness quickly becomes master of the body. One human life 
is of slight consequence when the lives of many, more worthy, are at stake. 
Eccentricity exists by sufferance. A musician whose peculiarities had been 
tolerated for years in the East, on the ground that he could not be as others 



THE MAJOR PE0BLE3IS. 57 



were, went West with the same oddities, now confirmed as fixed habits. He 
was given a dose of Western horse-sense, and made up his mind to be as 
other men were. Yet, in the East, had he committed murder, he would have 
been acquitted on the ground of insanity ; and he kneiv it ! In the West he 
would have been dealt with as he deserved, and he knew it ! Eccentricity is 
insanity, no doubt ; but, as in most cases of insanity there is responsibility for 
the crime. Men are as they are permitted to be. If a boy, as most boys do, 
grimaces and plays the fool to attract attention, he is sooner or later corrected 
by his parents or the good sense of some companion, generally a girl ; yet, if 
he has talent, no one cares to .correct him, and his boyish capers go into 
mature life with him. Then the same tom-f oolery is called eccentricity. So 
a woman knowing that tears will affect others, develops a disposition to go 
into hysterics, until her mind is unsettled. As seen in English and American 
strikes, women are more fiendish than men. The same women, in the time 
of plenty, become frivolous; in time of sorrow, religious; in time of quarrels, 
hideous. Every insane man and woman, has had an hysterical mother ; and 
every hysterical mother has permitted herself to develop her emotional nature 
at the expense of her reasoning faculties. The solution is obvious. Women who 
are excessively emotional, should never marry ; or, if married, should bear 
no children. We heard a woman of sane mind advise a wife of sane mind 
(whose husband was addicted to attending the lodge at night), to fall down 
in hysterics just before he started. She tried it several times. A son born 
soon after became insane. We can all make ourselves insane at will. 

Observation shows that a criminal tendency is stronger in periods of 
seven years. Life in the material construction of the body renews itself 
completely in periods of seven years. Until the age of seven, we are like our 
maternal ancestors; from that age to fourteen we follow our paternal ancestors 
in disposition. The reason is clear. Which side is the criminal, depends 
upon a long past. A boy, descended from a wicked paternal line would be 
more vicious from seven to fourteen, twenty-one to twenty-eight, thirty-five 
to forty-two, forty-nine to fifty-six. Many and many a time have we heard 
confessions from men and women of the truth of this, in their own lives. Self- 
study is an imperative duty. Remember that to turn the eyes inward may 
save many a wrong act ; and, above all things, remember that insanity is 
born of the freedom that you choose to give to your emotions. Develop the 



58 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TWO 

mind by four hours daily study ; the body by four hours daily exercise in 
the open air, and the emotions by talking to seven persons a day on an average, 
and an inherited tendency to insanity may be checked. One should think of or 
study seven different subjects daily. We know good men who believe that 
when temptation to commit crime is strong, suicide (but not the slaying of 
others) is justifiable ; making one less criminal in the world and possibly 
sparing innocent lives against his hand. The maudlin sympathy of juries, 
and jail-visiting women ; or of the public, toward insane criminals ; has 
developed a race of cranks, whose deadly work will be seen more in the 
future than in the past. Cranks and tramps are self-inflicted pests, made 
possible by public inactivity, increasing every year, drawing their numbers 
from the ranks of those who would otherwise be decent, and sure to 
remunerate present public tolerance by blotting out innocent lives. A few 
new laws, well executed, would suppress both evils. 

LESSON LXXI. 

41. (157). What is the difference in the gravity of the offense between 
the unjustifiable killing of a savage Indian and an intelligent animal ? 12-30. 

42. (158). How do you satisfy yourself that a human being is or is 
not justified in killing another human being for the purpose of food, when 
life can be saved in this way only ? 50-70. 

This kind of inquiry is not a pleasant one to contemplate. The law per- 
mits such killing. Is it permitted under all the religious codes ? Is it right 
per se ? The old case of two men upon a raft is again before us ; not that 
any two of us will ever be upon a raft, without food and water ; but that a 
law is forced upon us. Cases of this kind have happened ; men both on 
land and sea, have been forced to eat one of their party to keep alive. Is it 
right per se ? If one man's death will save a dozen lives, are they justified in 
killing him, or should they wait until the weakest dies of emaciation before 
they dine; or should lots be cast for the sacrifice; or should human flesh never 
be tasted ? We in our warm homes, with potatoes and corn meal in plenty, 
are more established in our opinions than if we were starving in Northern 
Siberia. 

LESSON LXXII. 

43. (161). Is it right for a strong nation to destroy the government 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 59 



of a weaker nation for the purpose of advancing the cause of civilization ? 
30-50. 

Civilization is a moral movement whose whole purpose is to educate 
man, and elevate the human race by so doing. 

44. (1G2). How do you satisfy yourself that it is or is not right to 
take animal life for the purpose of food, assuming that vegetation furnishes 
a more complete and healthful food? 

In the first phase of the inquiry we are brought to the fact that animal 
life is disappearing from the earth. In the ages of the long past, enormous 
brutes, birds, fish, and dragons dwelt here. In size they were already re- 
duced when man appeared. Had they not been so diminished, the human 
race could not have secured a foothold. Overteeming life was natural and 
necessary. Since the advent of man, animals are decreasing in numbers ; 
and this is not only because of man's war upon them, but for reasons related 
to the progress of the human race. The body of man is absorbing flesh 
life, not by eating it, but by absorbing that on which it feeds. In a very brief 
period the flesh life of sea, air, and land has been decimated in America. 
This is the tendency ; and it is a fact that the substance which makes human 
life is drawing, through chemical processes, all the flesh life of the earth to 
itself. The time will come when the only flesh in the world will be human. 

The question arises, can man live without using flesh for food ? Can a 
horse, a sheep, a cow, an ox so live ? Why is the ox so strong, the horse so 
spirited ? A human being must have phosphatic food ; and all meat con- 
tains this necessary substance. So do the grains if properly selected. But 
vegetables, fruits and white flour cannot supply the needs of the human 
body, unless enormous quantities are eaten ; therefore a meat-eater who 
turns vegetarian, becomes ill, and can never after be convinced of the value 
of that class of food. A very slight change in the grain foods would sup- 
ply more phosphates than meat. Vicious tempers, and certain unmention- 
able sins, may be completely cured by abandoning meat ; as may also the 
appetite for alcohol. 

But animals are raised expressly to be killed for food. Does God in- 
tend this ? 

LESSON LXXHI. 

45. (167). What class of persons should be deprived of the right of 
voting ? 30-50. 



60 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 



Have the ignorant, the foreign born, the negro, the anti-racial, a right to 
vote in a government seeking to attain the highest ends of civilization ? 

46. (168). What plans do you suggest whereby the chief burden of 
taxation may be borne by the rich alone? 80-170. 

America is to furnish to the historian the model of nations. She must 
cut sharp lines in several directions. Compulsory education to a certain 
limit, must be insisted upon ; and fur both sexes. The right to vote must 
be given in the form of a certificate and indented photograph, after exami- 
nation as to the voter's ability to read and write. No foreign-born person 
who comes to America, after a date to be fixed, shall be permitted to vote, 
except upon a long term of residence. An anti-racial citizen has no right 
to vote in any republic. By anti-racial, we do not mean sub-divisions of 
the Caucasians. The white race, including the people of nearly all Europe 
and Western Asia, is the foremost race of the world, — the Caucasian. The 
American, or red race, is doomed to extinction ; yet it peopled a hemisphere. 
The Negro, or black race, is the problem of the new world. The Malayan, 
or brown race, must give way to the march of time. The Mongolian, or 
yellow race, is too numerous to become a problem for many centuries yet. 

The first duty of every Caucasian nation to itself and to the anti-races, 
is to prevent miscegenation and immigration ; and certainly to prevent citi- 
zenship. The Caucasians will eventually occupy the earth ; and their march 
will be rapid as soon as they are educated. If the white nations were to form 
a federation of nations and to compel the next generation to receive a 
thorough common school education, a half-century hence every race on the 
globe would be in subjection to the Caucasians ; and the next step would be 
the repetition of the history of the American Indians. The millions of dol- 
lars that have been expended to convert the Indians to Christianity, and the 
mere handful that have in fact been converted to Christianity of the "happy 
hunting ground" order, represent the missionary work now in progress 
among the anti-racials. The benevolence and charity of the church are com- 
mendable, and their efforts to christianize the world should be seconded by 
all men ; but they are working among anti-racials and natural results alone 
can follow. 

One great result of missionary work will be the march of the white 
race into the lands of the anti-racials — the first step toward extinction ; and 



I 



THE MAJOR PB0BLE3IS. 61 



there are men living to-day who will witness the next steps in this grand 
Caucasian march. The Negro problem is the most interesting chapter, or 
serial in the coming pages of American history. The whites have wiped out 
one race till its remnants are but mementoes of the original ; the next con- 
flict will be less bloody ; but, unless nature contradicts her motives, none the 
less certain. God never intended two races to live together ; neither as 
slaves nor as associates. Any species of serfdom is slavery ; and any slavery 
implies laziness on the part of the master, a crime against the soul. There 
is no labor so low that a nobleman cannot perform it. Abraham Lincoln 
and his wife, in an humble cottage, performing all the duties of life with no 
servant excepting their own hands, were not degraded by honest toil. Lazi- 
ness destroys the pith of men and women. There is no reason why we should 
import anti-racials to do our menial labor. But there are millions of Negroes 
in America. Many of them are allowed to vote. A bestial crime against 
nature, was never more hideous than this unnatural and ungodly sin 
against the liepublic. The wrong has been done; it must be imdone : first 
by each State forbidding the right of State suffrage to Negroes and half- 
breeds, and making miscegenation a capital offense ; next, by constitutional 
amendment of the United States laws ; and third, by exportation and exclu- 
sion. This will not be accomplished until Northern citizens move to the 
South, and a Caucasian federation is organized. Every statesman foresees 
this future. A Caucasian federation would be a stimulus and a pride to all 
white people; and coupled with education would result in ennobling the 
race. But poverty will always exist as long as racial pride is dragged in the 
mire. The voter must settle this racial question, and then the matter of tax- 
ation will partly settle itself under American conditions. 

Laws should be passed which divide all classes into taxable and non- 
taxable. The non-taxable should be divided into industrious and their 
dependents, on the one hand, and non-industrious on the other. Voluntary 
non-industry of a non-taxable person should be a crime, punishable by some 
method that would make the crime odious even to an unsensitive tramp. 
An industrious married man should never be taxed until he owns, free of all 
incumbrance, a house and lot, and has in some government savings bank the 
sum of three thousand dollars, on which the government should pay interest 
while all the minor children are being educated, in good faith, and until a 



62 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

common school education is completed ; after which the principal should be 
repaid, one-tenth per year, with interest. 

LESSON LXXIV. 

47. (185). If a man is able to work, and will not when asked, should 
he be supported by charity? 20-40. 

Our discussions are given merely to excite thought, comment, and oppo- 
sition at times. As long as the non-industrious classes are able to live with- 
out working, charity will be a failure among them. A member of the 
industrious class who is not able to work, (and all men who desire to work 
can find it on the farms) has the strongest claim on the charity of the 
fortunate. He who tries but fails is always worthy. In communities where 
beggars are allowed on the street, or tramps permitted to go from door to 
door, it is the solemn duty of all persons to support the lazy and fraudulent 
claimants to charity. The community made the beggars by inviting the 
lazy to beg. Let charity be withdrawn absolutely from the non-industrial 
class, and they will disappear from the face of the earth. An industrial 
person has no right to complain of hard times ; for farming employment is 
always plenty ; and on the farm a family can get food, shelter, and clothing 
three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, with happiness thrown in. 
There is an endless opportunity for the poor to farm on shares, without a 
dollar of capital ; but they huddle in the cities, expect more work than there 
is, get wretchedly poor, and try by force to solve problems that grow deeper 
every year. The products of the city manufacture cannot be used until there 
are more farmers to use them. 

48. (186). What is the chief cause of poverty ? 100-200. 

In answering this question you are expected to take into consideration 
the conduct of the poor in times of fair opportunities. 

LESSON LXXY. 

49. (189). Is the acquisition of wealth generally compatible with 
honesty? 20-40. What honesty really is, may have something to do with 
the answer. 

50. (190). What is envy? 20-40. 

What is it, as it exists in the human heart, not in the dictionary ? How 
came it ? Is it a process of reasoning ? 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 63 



LESSON LXXVI. 

51. (207). If a man was made a free moral agent could he exist on 
an equality with others ? 40-50. 

52. (208). Could he in his freedom make progress without exciting 
the envy of inferiors? 20-40. Can you tell us why every successful per- 
son excites in the hearts of his inferiors a meanness of disposition that is the 
strongest evidence of depravity ? 

LESSON LXXVII 

53. (21o). What is the doctrine of chance? 40-70. Superstition 
instead of reason governs the conduct of most people. The superstitious 
person is the least successful in life. Events not thought out are apt to go 
astray. Keason need rarely ever err. Superstition is helpful, only by 
chance. This word chance represents that which happens. Would you land 
number thirteen in a row of one hundred of whom one was to be condemned 
to die ? Test the doctrine of chance ; cut out one hundred pieces of card, 
all alike, write a number on each ; scatter them upside down on a table ; let 
some person, blindfolded, draw one ; write down the number ; replace it and 
scatter them again ; so proceed until one hundred drawings have been made ; 
look at the record ; what number was most frequently drawn ? Is that to 
be the lucky number of your life ? How often was the number thirteen 
drawn ? 

How far may a man control the circumstances which sur- 
30-60. 

LESSON LXXVIII 

What is Paganism ? 20-40. 

How do you account for the fact that all nations and 
tribes have some form of religion ? 40-GO. 

LESSON LXXIX. 

57. (239). What is electricity ? 60-100. 

58. (240). How is it generated? 40-80. 

LESSON LXXX. 

59. (263). Accepting the theory that electricity is the first immediate 
essence of all life, and the most difficult to understand, is it reasonable to 



54. 


(214). 


nd his 


life? 


55. 


(227). 


56. 


(228). 



64 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

assume that this power is the direct agency of the Creator ? How may it be ? 
70-100. 

If the Creator has determined to hide Himself from human knowledge, 
He has succeeded. If we could see the whole sky we should know God. 
If we could get a microscope that would show us the smallest particle of 
matter, we should know life. If we could catch an electrical spark and hold 
it loag eaough to know what it was, we might know thought. Is electricity 
accumulated dead light ? Does it come from the sun ? 

60. (264). What is light? 100-200. 

The main discussion of this question must be confined to two lines of 
inquiry ; is light an agitation of matter, or is it a force in itself ? Sound is 
undoubtedly mere agitation of some form of matter ; nothing is conveyed. 
Light at the present stage of the earth's history does not come altogether 
from the sun. Scientists tell us that all substances that give out heat and 
light, have derived them from the sun in some past age of the universe ; and 
that the coal beds of the earth are store-houses of the sun's rays. The 
theory is pretty ; but if light is mere agitation, it cannot be said to be 
derived from the sun, except as it comes directly from it. The senses are 
affected by movement ; the movement has an impelling cause ; the cessation 
of the impulses is the inspiration of the senses ; life is movement ; the rocks 
alone are dead ; there are ways of interpreting life, by receiving and trans- 
lating the meaning of movement ; these ways we call senses ; the yearning, 
intellect, mind, life of a person can be no greater than the power of the senses 
to interpret movement. On the other hand, if light is the onward move- 
ment of some ethereal substance, its sudden cessation when obstructed, must 
carry force to the obstruction. Is this the depositing of electricity ? 

LESSON LXXXI. 

61. (265). How is it destroyed ? 30-70. 

62. (266). How do you account for the transparency of an object? 
30-70. 

The tremendous force of the sun's rays may partly disintegrate the 
blood-corpuscles of the human body. Eruptions caused by the sun's heat 
are the most persistent. Often the brain is affected when no sunstroke is 
noticed. Is this power that of agitation only? The soil on which the sun 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 65 



shines at once destroys its rays ; so any opaque object does this. If the light 
is a force, whither went it ? How may a candle throw a light for two miles, 
and yet convey no heat ? And how may so tiny a light be sent with equal 
force in one thousand million directions at the same time, even while others 
are shining, and must throw rays in every possible cross- direction ? Sub- 
stance, lighter and thinner than glass, will destroy the fiercest rays of the sun, 
while a tiny candle shines through many successive panes of glass — how do 
you explain it? 

LESSON LXXXII. 

63. (275). What is spontaneous combustion? 40-80. 

64. (276). What is fire? 100-150. 

That the two are akin in principle can be readily seen. If the last 
match, or fire producing agency, were destroyed, how could we obtain fire ? 
When we strike a match the friction produces agitation, and material which 
is agitated is sensitive to oxygen, or easily unites with it. Phosphorus at a 
very low temperature unites with oxygen; therefore a slight agitation pro- 
duces fire. Why should not a war of the particles in themselves, or even a 
rubbing together of two bodies produce agitation? If two sticks are 
violently rubbed, are the particles not agitated ? 

LESSON LXXXIII. 

65. (270). What is the essential difference between sound and light? 
30-60. 

66. (280). Was the larynx created by design ? 

The former question should be carefully considered. In the latter we 
are shown the existence of the instrument that creates sound. Observation 
makes it clear to us that sound is an agitation, in this case of air by the 
larynx ; and the only doubt remaining is as to the nature of the matter 
under vibration. Is it the whole body of air, or the oxygen in the air, or the 
ozone in the air, or the nitrogen, or the inner air, known as ae, or particles 
within and between the molecules ? The sole purpose of the larynx is to 
vibrate the air, and so make tone. There is some reason for arguing that 
the senses of taste and smell were evolved from an inward force, demanding 
the power to discriminate between proper and improper foods. All matter 
is not food for the body ; there is a series of selection from the time of hun- 



ee HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

ger to the satisfyiDg of it. The ear catches the sound of running water ; 
drink is more important than solid food ; the eye finds the food and water ; 
the hand plucks the berries, not the leaves ; the senses of taste and smell 
make the last selection from without ; the nerves of the major stomach, like 
roots of plants, select from the selected soil the particle desired to make 
blood ; in the second stomach another selection is made ; along the intestinal 
canal the last selection completes the process begun by the ear. All this is 
necessary, and necessity may have forced the senses into shape and life. 

But the larynx is strictly a social organ. In primitive man it uttered 
the cry of alarm. It is an organ of air ; as the eye is of water. Fish do 
not require a larynx, a communication affecting the body of water, as a blow, 
would excite the eye, if not the body itself ; a sharp explosion often bursts 
the eye-balls of fish, and destroys the fish themselves. 

Here we see an adaption of created life to surroundings and require- 
ment ; would, in man, the desire to speak evolve the larynx ? Is creation 
charged with the po^yer to develop every faculty necessary for use ? If so a 
man need but will his destiny ; and his own determination may extend to the 
perpetuation of life mortal and immortal. 

LESSON LXXXIV. 

67. (289.) What relation has color to light ? 40-80. 

That there is some relation is seen in the fact that light is necessary to 
color ; if affected by it ; affects color ; and the eye which is the organ of light 
is often color-mixed, or color blind. 

68. (290). What causes the growth of flowers ? 30-70. 

LESSON LXXXY. 

69. (307.) Is it necessary that the body should die ? Explain. 40-70. 

70. (308.) How do you satisfy yourself that it may or may not be the 
intention of the Creator that man should discover the means of perpetuating 
his life? 70-200. 

The average of human life is growing longer, and the growth is steadily 
increasing. If death is to be postponed, the first step must be to delay the 
approach of old age and its infirmities. To be old and helpless is not desir- 
able. The cause of old age is the osseous tendency of the body; this tendency 
is due to the calcareous deposits derived from meat, raw water and 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 67 



boiled water. Eating juicy fruits and drinking distilled water will 
dissolve the calcareous deposits and prevent accumlation. Old age, if a 
person is otherwise careful, is impossible. The Kalston Club is engaged 
with this question, and is successfully proving these facts. But let us 
assume that we may avoid the dangers from all sources where man's foresight 
may save him, and ask, is earth the goal of our ambition ? 

LESSON LXXXVI. 

71. (309.) Accepting the theory that the soul is but an electrical force, 
is it not probable that the discovery of the real nature of electricity would 
disclose the nature of soul-life and of God? 30-()0. 

72. (310.) What is death ? 40-100. 

This question refers to the separation of the soul from the body. At 
what time and by what act does the soul depart ? If when the heart ceases 
to beat, or the lungs to breathe, the soul departs, how then can it be more 
than flesh ? Does the immortal part of man depart at the time of hopeless 
insanity? The mind is gone. Few animals ever become insane; and plants 
never ; yet all vegetation breathes as do the lungs ; and on ceasing to hold 
the spark of life, all things die. 

LESSON LXXXVIL 

73. (325.) Taking the world altogether, is good or bad more pre- 
valent? 50-120. 

It is better to analyze this subject in four ways : first, all mankind, 
including the five great races, Caucasian, Mongolian, Negro, Indian and 
Malayan, should be considered ; second, the relative morality of each; third, 
the forces of Nature and the chances of happiness derivable from all pro- 
cesses, due regard being had for the dangers that environ us; and fourth, the 
great Caucasian race. Assuming that the Indians were savage by Nature, 
they are excusable for their cruelties, as would be the savage beasts ; except- 
ing that the latter rarely kill to torture. The Negroes are excusable, as are 
all pagans, on the ground of ignorance. But the standard of right is never 
mistakable ; and races that are naturally criminal and beastly are wicked, no 
matter how far their ignorance may excuse them from punishment. But the 
great question is that which involves the morality of the white race : this the 



68 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO 

race of the New and Old Testaments, the race of civilization, progress, and 
ethics, the only responsible and inexcusable race on earth. 

74. (326). Regardless of laws or commandments, what acts of man- 
kind are wrong jje?' sef 50-100. 

It may be seen that the Shaftesbury theory does not make an excusable 
sin right. Murder is murder, when innocent blood is shed, even by the zealot 
who is taught that it is right. There are many acts of modern life that are 
wrong by law, but not^jter se ; there are some that are not forbidden by law, 
yet are wrong. 

LESSON LXXXVIII. 

75. (345). In respiration, circulation, and digestion, man is identical 
with vegetation; what does this indicate ? 30-70. 

Be careful to distinguish this line of inquiry from questions of a 
similar import. On examination they will be found to extend into diverging 
lines. The present question is one of the most difficult in this study. 

76. (346). What is human marriage ? 40-70. 

Is it the union of two souls ? Is it a contract ? Is it dissolvable for 
cause ? Does marriage constitute the union of two beings for love, for home, 
for power, for comforts, or merely to answer the demands of life ? Does it 
extend beyond earthly life? Two persons actually love each other, and are 
not legally married ; two others hate each other and are legally married ; 
what marriages are these? 

LESSON LXXXIX. 

77. (371). What is character? 100-140. 

78. (372). What is selfishness ? 40-90. 

A race of beings entirely unselfish would be without ambition ; no 
thought of self would imply no care of self ; and hence no attainments. 

LESSON XC. 

79. (385). Can you see in life two tendencies : that which is toward 
Nature leading to depravity ; and that which is from Nature, leading to 
culture. Explain. 60-100. 

A civilized man, college educated, who goes into the mountainous parts 
of the earth will soon lose his finer nature and become roughened. It is 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 69 



claimed that many of the clay eaters of the south have descended from the 
aristocracy of former days. 

80. (386). Is or is not man at his best the creature of his own choice? 
20-40. 

Some are endowed with the disposition to improve themselves ; others 
desire to improve but lack the energy to do so ; and still others are perfectly 
indifferent to all the finer impulses of life. The last class is not teachable. 
Charity is supporting to-day thousands of miserable wretches who have 
scorned to lift a finger to help themselves except for the immediate present. 
Among the better classes, this indisposition is found in its usual proportions; 
and indicates that proneness to laziness is a disease. Indeed it is getting to 
be the opinion of medical men that all divergencies of life are forms of 
disease ; crime, literary genius, laziness and others. The question now is, 
may a man choose to make himself active, who is naturally indifferent to his 
success ? It is a deep and intricate problem, 

LESSON XCI. 

81. (389). Accepting the theory which Nature seems to teach, and the 
Bible asserts positively, that only the worthy are saved, would absolute deprav- 
ity in man followed by death, as of a tree, be an illogical process? 20-50. 

The question, whether the brutes of the human species are possessors of 
immortal souls, is an issue from this inquiry. But, assuming that man is not 
depraved until his own acts so make him, may he become unworthy of life 
everlasting ? 

82. (390). What right has any person to assert that a being, who 
happens to have the shope of man, must therefore have an immortal soul ? 
40-60. 

The question carries its own discussion with it. The answer must not 

be sentiment merely. 

LESSON XCII. 

83. (409). Has not each religion been adapted to each age and people? 
40-70. 

There is either a general religion that springs up in each being, assuming 
such shape as is forced upon it by its environments ; or else, there is but 
one religion based upon goodness per se. This issue must be settled. 



70 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

84. (406). Need any religion be wrong, whose, underlying principle is 
perfect morality ? 20-40. 

LESSON XCIII. 

85. (405). Is it probable that Soul-life can ever be any different from 
what we find it now? 30-70. 

A tree gives up its spirit when it dies ; although its lungs are dormant 
in winter life. An animal gives up its spirit at death ; although in winter 
some hibernate and are dormant like the tree. A human being, like the tree 
and animal, gives up its breath when death comes ; although in the trance 
state it is dormant. We do not believe that the soul is the breath, nor are 
the two co-extensive ; neither do we believe that the soul remains in the 
body always as long as life lasts. In this view we are not alone. Hence 
arises the query, is this life Soul-life ; or is the latter entirely after death ; 
or, if the soul now lives, are we given tastes of its future ? 

86. (410). What reason is there to support the philosophy that the 
soul passes on from life to life until it becomes worthy of Heaven ? 60-100. 

LESSON XCIV. 

87. (415). What is the destiny of the worlds which are losing their 
heat? 80-200. 

88. (416). From a study of Nature, what is the probability as to 
the peopling of other worlds? 40-100. 

These three questions are related. Heat must have a source either ever 
active, or imparted at some past period. It is but chaos seeking to adjust 
itself. From the time when God let matter loose in the universe, charged 
with its mission, the sky has been seeking to arrange itself according to its 
laws. It is not probable that new forces have ever been let loose since that 
day. Suns are losing their heat, and all the worlds of space are giving up 
their activity. How long it will require to end this existence is incalcu- 
lable. Either all human life is confined to our planet, and it has been 
taken by accident or design out of myriads of worlds ; or other orbs are 
peopled by beings like ours in effect. If there are peopled planets, then 
they must be occupied by beings born upon them out of the processes of 
life ; or by re-embodied Souls migrating from other worlds. The problems 
are full of meat and thought. 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 71 



LESSON XCV. 

89. (445). Would the Soul, or electrical essence, if freed from the 
body, see trees, sky, flowers, and beings ? 20-50. 

90. (446). What is darkness, affirmatively described. 40-100. 
The agitation of atomic matter, in seeking to adjust itself to its laws, 

results in what is known as light. Certain agitation produces light ; certain 
other produces darkness. When the nerves of sight are affected, light is also 
affected ; what is seen is dependent upon the agency of seeing. To the 
blind there is no light. Sight is purely material ; if the Soul is spiritual, 
or ethereal, can it see objects composed of the material ? 

LESSON XCYII. 

91. (416). What is the chemical process of the passage of the Soul 
from the body ? 70-200. 

92. (462). What sight would be necessary in order to see it? 

That the Soul on leaving the body gives evidence of its departure is 
claimed to be settled, if its departure is coincident with the leaving of the 
breath. Many wonderful reports have come to us of the movements of the 
spirit for three days after death ; and evidences, not so much of spiritualism, 
as of spirit sight and impressions, are numerous. If you believe there is 
any difference between the process of breath-departure and soul-departure, 
state the chemical action which occurs at the time ; also if it is possible to 
behold the soul with material sight. 

LESSON XCVII. 

93. (473). Under the common movements of physical laws, how 
soon would a planet dissolve ? 40-60. 

94. (474). Why must all suns eventually pass through planet life ? 
100-300. 

Suns are necessarily chaos. Planets derive their light and heat from 
suns. The former must fade when the latter cease to throw off sufficient 
heat to support them. But what about the latter ? 

LESSON XCVIII. 

95. (485). What is the destiny of vegetation. 50-100. 

Many hints regarding this inquiry may be found in previous discus- 



72 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

sions. It is true that vegetation must have preceded animal life, for the 
latter subsists on the former ; it is true that animal life, under the destructive 
agencies of man, is passing from the earth. It remains to be seen, what is 
to be the fate of planetary plant life. But the question has a broader 
scope : that which touches the hereafter. Can matter ever cease to exist ? 
If so, by what process can it be reduced to nothing ? If it is to live in the 
hereafter, is it possible that flowers can be suppressed ? 

96. (486). With what is a drop of blood charged in addition to its 
chemical parts? 40-90. 

An answer to this question must state the chemical composition of a 
drop of blood, as well as the humanity within it. Is a whole human body 
contained in each drop ? 

LESSON XCIX. 

97. (495). Is consciousness of earth and earthly ambitions, hopes 
and loves, necessary to life hereafter ? 30-60. 

98. (496). If not, what is the difference between the triumphant 
resurrection of the Soul, and annihilation ? 70-150. 

A sick lamb, placed in early life in a separate pasture with a colt, be- 
came so attached to his larger friend that in after life parting was pain. 
Nearly all animals possess the spirit of affiliation; and, when we consider 
their mental endowments, they are not surpassed by their human superiors. 
Few, if any, of the religious teachers of the world declare that animals live 
hereafter. Probably all plant life knows something of the love of associa- 
tion. It is hard to separate any created thing that breathes, from the great 
pulse of life. 

Death parts us all. The unknown opens up a new classification ; and 
we all ask what it is, — no one answering. Are we to be re-embodied ? If 
so life will be full of joys and love in those whom we may be glad to know; 
but what about the wayward brother who died on the gallows, unrepenting ? 
Are we to live in spirit only ? If so, will the spirit of Smith who meets the 
spirit of Jones, remember the detailed life of the latter as lived in the body ? 
Memory is short on earth ; and the bliss of the ever present may have no 
memory in the life after death. Obliterate memory from the mind, and the 
Soul of to-day would be a stranger to the Soul of yesterday. 



i 



THE MAJOR PROBLEMS. 73 



LESSON C. 

99. (499). How do you satisfy yourself that there is or is not a personal 
devil? 75-200. 

There must be some way of accounting for the deviltry in the human 
heart. It is an almost impossible thing to keep from sin. Our pupils 
must account for this condition fully and satisfactorily. 

100. (500). Apart from all religions, except that of AE. or Nature's 
God, what must the Soul attain in this world, in order to be entitled to 
life after death ? 100-200. 

The instrument of unknown forces, man is lost in the mysteries that 
surround him. In sorrow he pleads, in distress he despairs, in prosperity 
he becomes indifferent. Better man has the divine sweetness of flower life; 
and meaner man the cruelty of the hidden thorn. Behind life there is some 
power which makes the bad, not necessarily one and the same, and yet pos- 
sibly so. We are the creatures of a thousand incidents ; to-day driven by 
fear into a holier yearning ; to-morrow bright with inspired hope ; and after- 
ward tossed into some tempestuous sea of doubt. We love and hate; do good 
and commit sins ; submit to the teachings of wisdom and yield to direful 
temptations. 

Death closes out all defiance of fate in the breast of true men and women. 
We are afraid of the step that means nothing or everything. Knowing that 
our grasp on the raft of this life is fast weakening, we grope distressfully 
among the gulfing waves for some rope, whose end is anchored on the shore 
of the unknown continent, and strive to obtain a firm hold, ere the raft goes 
to pieces. This is religion. Is there not great reason why man should be a 
religious being ? Instead of a uniform revelation and command given to the 
world, we find every phase of divine worship abounding on earth ; each 
species being suited to its people, tribe or nation. In the service of any 
school of worship, the man within is the ultimate answerer. Does this inward 
guard speak alike to all ? Is there a duty which all men owe themselves, their 
fellow beings and their God? Is the Kingdom of Heaven to be one day opened 
to all these reeking souls, whose fairest breath is fouler than the stench of hell ? 

END 

of the second examination in the Home Course of Philosophy. 



74 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TWO. 

The remaining eight TOMES contain the study proper, or OUR 
EXISTENCES. Whatever opinion you may have of them, they are but the 
outlines of life|as viewed by the Shaftesburian Philosophy. They cover much 
ground that is new to all the world, yet keep within the limits of science and 
the weight of probabilities. They are the result of deep investigation, made 
by one who had no opinions to sustain, and none to change. The fact that 
their influence upon all time to come is destined to be great, prompted the 
utmost care, research and deliberation in their preparation. 

There are two channels of truth : one which carries the processes of 
inspiration, sustained by examination and proof. All else is a shoreless sea. 
We hope to touch the spring that sets in motion the larger machinery of the 
mind of each of our pupils, so that their thought, and inspired study, may 
lead them with us into all the realms that remain undiscovered. 

SPECIAL NOTICE. 

The rules regarding Certificates of Merit, Certificates of Honor, 
Graduation in Philosophy, and the winning of the Great Diploma as well as 
the attainment of the Degree, see, at the end of Tome Ten, the Rules of 
Graduation. 



Th^ ^HAPTnai^URq vSCMOOl^ OF PMlL,030PMq 



KNOWN AS THE STUDY OF 



Our BxiaTmcn*^ 



76 A POEM OF LIFE. 



H poem of %ifc. 



By Edmund Shaptesbury. 



I lie in the shadow of life's early morn 

And catch the first gleamings of glories new-born. 
The freshness of earth and the blue of the sky 

Are fairest when mirrored in boyhood's bright eye. 
The innocent hour of life's sinless domain 

Is purer by far than the joys that remain. 
It came like a dream, like a dream passed away, 

And left but the shadow of swift fleeting day. 

1 lie 'neath the sky where the clouds idly sail 

O'er the land of my fancy, sweet life's promised vale. 
Fair meadowland, fairyland, dreamland of youth, 

Th}' rose was my fancy, its thorn was thy truth. 
No more is the time when the heart's pleasures burn, 

And joys btit half -tasted will never return. 
It came like a dream, like a dream it has gone, 

The flower of my youth, the rose with its thorn. 

I lie in the bosom of life's tossing sea 

And wonder what danger the wave brings to me. 
Ambition's bright treasure lies over the strand 

And my bark proudly sails toward that far-away land. 
I reach it and claim it as earth's dearest prize ; 

But ere I enjo}^ it the fair image flies. 
It came like a dream, like a dream it is fled, 

And in its pale embers ambition lies dead. 



I lie in the fever of life's waning hour. 

And painfully gaze where the dark heavens lower. 
The uplands are fading, the mists bathe the sight 

'Till earth and its glories are shrouded in night. 
Proud life remains fettered on Time's barren shore. 

And waits for its waking, in shadows no more. 
It came like a dream, like a dream will depart 

And silence forever the sorrowing heart. 



A Personal Statement. 



PART ONE. 



THE AUTHOR. 

Were it not for the persistent requests received from friends whom I 
have never met, 1 should not make, at this time and place, a statement of 
myself. At the most it can only satisfy curiosity ; and I have at all times 
considered it out of place. 

It is to save myself from a flood of correspondence, and to evince a 
desire not to offend those who are kind enough to express confidence in the 
books I have already published, that I give them " a little account of 
myself." In doing this I am compelled to use the personal pronoun. 

My first desire is to be judged by my works; and my second is to have 
them estimated at their actual value. I make no claim to special literary 
merit. My position is that of a collector of facts, with no theories to 
support and none to demolish. I do have a fixed opinion as to the manner 
in which a scientific work of this kind should be written ; and that is, to 
make the style simple, and use only such words as may be understood by 
the average reader. For scientists, the use of technical terms may be a 
convenience and a necessity ; but they destroy absolutely the value of a 
general book. It is no easy matter to reduce to common phraseology the 
great facts of science ; nor to speak of things known only to histology, in 
language that was never before applied to them. To do this, several words 
and terms have been either coined or taken from common parlance; and, to 
this extent, scientists who wish to hide their knowledge, may seriously 
object ; but to the facts stated no scientist who has kept pace with the 
learning of the last twenty years, can offer any refutation. 

To reply, or even refer, to the unusually kind expressions contained in 
the letters received would be immodest; and the requests for a description 
of my personality could not be gratified, chiefly for the reason that there is 
nothing to be described. I am a very commonplace individual, with a 
remarkable love for continuous and assiduous toil. I have but one merit, 

(79) 



80 A PEE SON A L STATEMENT. 

if that can be called a merit, and that is my determination to shut my 
mind against all opinions and theories. All investigators, after acquiring a 
fact or two, form an opinion and build a theory ; and all subsequent facts 
are delved out of the earth only in the pathway of that theory. Even the 
most honest scientist, while anxious for the truth, is biased by an opinion 
already formed. 

My period of labor has extended over many years, beginning at an age 
when I could not believe it possible, were it not for the existence of 
manuscripts that can leave no doubt open at the present day. To my 
memory I cannot tell when I commenced ; for, as in all persons, it drifts 
away to a clouded beginning. During a long and clearly defined period I 
have done much of my work through others ; especially in the reading of 
books and tiresome experiments, where only a grain of wheat might be 
found in a bushel of chaff. In consequence of this there are many who are 
entitled to credit who cannot be named, on account of numbers, — no less 
than two hundred having assisted in almost as many lines of study in one 
period alone, — while others of greater prominence have aided in the 
experiments. 

PART TWO. 

THE INSTIGATION. 

Why one person is inclined toward one pursuit in life, and another has 
his whole being drawn in an opposite direction, involves the study of what 
we are. 

Deeming it a matter of greater interest to my students to learn 
something of the first impulses that directed my life toward this line of 
investigation, rather than to discuss things merely personal, I will state 
briefly the early struggle that occurred, and the course it gave to a very 
ordinary mind. Before doing this, it is proper to say that I have long 
withheld from my friends, excepting a few, what in any other place would 
be an idle account of a trifling experience which I am satisfied has happened 
to thousands of others. 

Victor Hugo declared that he had lived many times before, but that 
the memory could not go back so far even as to the beginning of this life ; 



A PERSONAL SrATUMEXT. 81 

many things of five and ten years ago being readily forgotten. I mention 
this not to present at this place the question of other lives, if such there 
have been ; but to discuss the phenomenon of memory. 

At the age of five years I stated in all its elaborate details an event 
which occurred more than three years before, when I was in ray second year ; 
and, while forgetting the first statement of it, I have never forgotten the 
earlier event, so deep an impression did it make on my mind. This piece 
of inemory served to strengthen my belief in the other recollection which 
most amazed me ; acting as a verification of the latter. After passing 
my sixth year I do not think I allowed the thought to again escape my 
lips until I was stricken with typhoid fever, nearly six years later, and 
was supposed to be dying. To my nurse I confided the story, and from her 
learned of many things I had said on the same subject when I was too young to 
think seriously of anything. 

I will say here incidentally that I am satisfied that infants, even at the 
time of birth, have greater mental conception than is generally believed. 
It is well known that the head, long before birth, is excessively large as 
compared with the rest of the body. It is also a well known fact that the 
ovum contains a single germ, from which originates the brain. That this 
embryo life has consciousness, will be shown in the TOMES. 

Finding that other children did not have their minds burdened with 
thoughts that ran in this channel, I became frightened lest my own mental 
faculties might be errant ; and, whatever conclusion I might reach, I resolved 
not to subject myself to the criticisms of others by saying anything more on 
the subject. For years I pursued the study of the question. What are wef 
and was afraid to trust my own consciousness, until, more than fifteen years 
thereafter, I confirmed the evidences of my memory. 

To repeat the story of a life and the process of investigation that were 
as charming as an unfolding panorama would take volume after volume. 

As an illustration I will take a single example : There were two opinions 
prevailing as to the basis of matter; one declaring that there must be a unit 
or indivisible particle in nature ; and the other that the smallest particle was 
divisible and its points separable, and so on forever and forever, there being 
nothing so small that it could not be sub-divided without limit. Finding 
that these two theories were guesswork, I spent many years in an experiment 

6 



82 A PERSONAL STATE3IENT. 

in photo-microscopy, practically to no purpose. The chief point gained was 
already partially known, that a ray of light will disclose nothing smaller 
than, or as small as, itself. I became satisfied that a microscope of 500 
diameters is, under certain conditions, as valuable as the largest known ; and 
that the largest only develops a blur, owing to the attempt to use rays of 
light to see things smaller than the light itself. 

Nothing daunted, I proceeded in another line of experiment. I knew 
that if there were atoms, or ultimately indivisible particles, each must be 
within the range of a modern microscope, provided a way could be devised 
for making them visible. The first direct step was taken when decaying 
food in a dark room was found to furnish a phosphorescent light strong 
enough to enable it to be photographed. All investigators of the habits of 
bacteria know that this can now be done, and it is no longer a novelty. 

The next step was a process entirely original with me ; and I am now 
able to say absolutely and without reserve that the ultimate atom is not so 
small as imagined ; that the blur of a large diameter microscope is due to 
atomic conditions which prevent their appearance from lack of minute light; 
that phosphorescence, while it excites atoms, is not light; and that the 
operation of light, heat and fire, growth and electrical phenomena are capable 
of proof. 

A subject that required many years of investigation was evolution, 
involving the theories of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. 
Without opinion or belief either way, I proceeded to take advantage of the 
work and achievements of others as a starting point , and followed through 
a series of experiments, which will be stated ; and came to an absolute 
conclusion that man is not evolved from the earlier forms of creation, but is 
one of a simultaneous and diverse species of life. This I call the 

DOCTEINE OF DiVEESITY. 

I come now to the more serious phase of my life. When a boy I had 
a solemn respect for truth and purity that to me in after years seemed unac- 
countable. It resulted in the acquisition of fixed moral ideas at a very 
early age ; and, although I went out into the world and became a part of 
the great seething mass of humanity and was swayed by all the temptations 
of life, I was never able to eradicate these ideas, nor to escape their influ- 
ences. 



A PERSONAL STATEMENT- 83 

While under the sway of this power, aud thirsting for special knowl- 
edge, there came to me, as has come to nearly all others, the call of life. It 
was a voice from within, and it pursued me year after year. I repelled its 
invitation ; in fact, I ran away from myself to avoid it ; but each new 
circumstance offered greater opportunities for the fulfillment of destiny. All 
the while my eagerness for knowledge and my keen desire for experiment 
were furnishing me with the means of carrying forward what must now be 
accepted as a life work. 

Imbued with a steadfast faith in the destined purpose of my own 
existence, I have taken steps to lay before the world a course of procedure 
that must stand or fall on its own intrinsic merits. My duty is to state it, 
and to help it; with the results I have nothing to do. 

I am satisfied that religion is breaking into fragments, and that union 
is necessary ; that human society exists on a wrong basis ; that avarice and 
hatred are the prime passions resulting from this wrong ; that pedantry is 
too often taught in the place of knowledge ; that few persons know what 
life is, and how to live it ; and that the great facts of the mind, the soul 
and the universe have not yet been told. 

To assume the task of meeting the demands of these needs may seem 
the height of audacity ; and I willingly agree with any view in that direc- 
tion. Still I am convinced of the absolute truth of all that is unfolded in 
the eight tomes following; and, while the author is unworthy, the facts 
themselves are monuments of strength, the bulwarks of Nature, which time 
alone can make manifest to mankind. 

Edmund Shaftesbuky. 



TOME THREE. 



THE MYSTERIES. 



LESSON cr. 

TOPIC 1. GENERAL. 

Man does not know why he was created, why he will die, whence he 
came, where he is, where he is tending, nor anything concerning the life 
which is in him. Surrounded by a wealth of space and matter, he is abso- 
lutely helpless. What he has guessed at and written in the millions of 
books, he is not certain of ; for the next great discovery may overturn his 
most assured fact. If it had been the intention of the Creator to hide the 
mysteries of life from man, nothing could be more perfectly done. In spite 
of the boasted knowledge of the world, and the wonderful progress of the 
sciences, we can safely assert that man knows nothing; except it be that he 
has a partial comprehension of the operations of matter. 

LESSON CII. 

TOPIC 2. SPACE. 

The earth we inhabit, compared with the visible orbs, is too insignifi- 
cant to be mentioned in connection with them. It is an infant in the Solar 
System, whose entire family, stretching hundreds of millions of miles in 
space, is so small a part of the sky that a grain of sand compared with the 
earth is in larger proportion. The dimensions of the universe are so enor- 
mous that, if man were a giant standing with one foot on the sun and the 
other reaching across space to the utmost star, and had a body correspond- 
ingly large, he would be lost in the contemplation of his own insignificance 
as compared with the architecture of the heavens about him. Astronomy, 
with all its complex computations, leaves us in dense ignorance of the sky, 
its nature, dimensions, and purpose. 

LESSON cm. 

TOPIC 3. IMMENSITY. 

Starting with the fact that man is enveloped in mystery, we shall show 

(84) 



THE 3IYSTERIES. 85 



that this condition is intended as his lot ; and, if this is proved, it will do 
much toward shaping our motives of living. 

If it had been intended that man should not know how large is the 
universe, could that fact be more completely hidden than it actually is ? If 
it had been intended that the immensity which surrounds this tiny earth 
should be ultimately known, by what avenue of approach can that knowl- 
edge be reached ? 

It is absolutely certain that the physical body can never leave the 
earth. The discovery of the uses of steam and electricity, while great in a 
small sense, are not analogous to extra-terrestrial transportation. It is 
equally certain that the telescope, in scanning the sky, is under the ban of 
limitation, owing to the fact that the concentration of the rays of light is 
not great enough to throw the diverging rays sufficiently close together to 
transmit details long distances. 

There is no means of communication with the orbs of the sky ; and, as 
we can neither go there, nor even look into their affairs, the conclusion is 
evident that we are shut out of all knowledge of other worlds. 

We assert that this complete hiding of what is around us is intentional. 

LESSON CIV. 

TOPIC 4. RAY OF LIGHT. 

What are called senses are, with the exception of sight, related to our 
immediate surroundings. We must touch and taste by contact ; the essence 
of smell excites the nose, and hearing depends on vibrating air actually 
striking the ear. The only sense which may relate to distance is sight, and 
that may compass millions of miles. Take sight from all mankind, and life 
would be vegetable in its nature. 

Sight depends on light ; and the latter is a collection of rays, if our 
claim is true. What a ray is may well puzzle the world. Not long ago 
light was considered a substance, as heat is to-day by a few ; and the nearest 
explanation of light is as errant as is the claim that heat may be the substi- 
tution of one force for another. 

LESSON CV. 

TOPIC 5. ORIGIN OF MAN. 

Any statement that man was created out of the dust of the earth is 



86 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME THREE. 

clearly true ; and the correctness of the assertion is not affected by any the- 
ory, tradition or account. The Jewish statement in Genesis does not con- 
tradict, nor is it contradicted by any theory ever advanced by civilized man. 
There is a wonderful wisdom in the general nature of the story. 

The fact that man exists is a verification of his creation ; and that he 
is a part of the dust of the earth is self-evident. Here no mystery exists. 
It is the method and process of his origin that no mind can discover. 

How man came into the universe is not known, and the smallest fact 
that might shed even a ray of light on the subject is completely hidden. No 
silence could be more perfect, no darkness more obscure. Religions are 
barbarous in proportion as they attempt to satisfy the hunger of the soul as 
to the origin of man ; that religion is most advanced and civilized which 
declares that man was created from the dust of the earth ; and does not 
specify the details or process of his origin. 

The purpose is plain ; of one fact we are sure : man is denied all 

knowledge. That it is not accidental, but intentional, we shall endeavor to 

prove. 

LESSON CVI. 

TOPIC 6. WHY WE LIVE. 

With due reverence for the faith of the noblest of earth's people, we 
assert that no human being has any knowledge of why he lives ; indeed 
religious faith is silent on the subject. Life at its best is full of suffering 
and disappointments ; and dangers face us at every turn. Water drowns us, 
cold freezes us, fire burns us, the sun strikes us, gravity destroys us, gases 
poison us, collision demolishes, a blow fells, hunger famishes, and a trifle 
chokes us to death. Even if we avoid the dangers from accident and natural 
causes, there are designs upon our lives from almost every species of created 
existence. Wars and private murder have slain millions times millions ; a 
little heat of passion ends in death ; our pet animals may slay us ; bees sting 
to death ; wolves devour ; the snake or spider may poison ; the porcupine is 
armed with quills designed to kill ; all untamed animals are the enemies of 
human life ; and even herbs, weeds and flowers may make a deadly concoc- 
tion. From birth to death our existence is a matter of daily uncertainty, 
filled with worry and fear. 

What is the meaning of all this ? Are we living for our own pleasure 



THE MYSTERIES. 87 



or for our good, here or hereafter ? No one has been narrow enough to pre- 
tend that there is the slightest knowledge on the subject. Are we living to 
please, satisfy or gratify any being or Creator ? No one has ever given us 
any information regarding the matter. We are shrouded in mystery as pro- 
found as the blackest night. There is no way of knowing ; it is intended 
that we should not know. 

LESSON CVII. 

TOPIC 7. WHY WE DIE. 

After life's dream we all must die. Why ? Is the reward of the pains 
of birth and living, death ? If there is a life to come why should the shrunken 
body go down into the grave ? If perfection is beyond death of what service 
is this life ? How can a period of existence devoted merely to a struggle to 
keep alive aid an existence that might originate without it ? Speculate as we 
may there is not the slightest clue to the purpose of death ; and that this is 
God's design toward man we shall attempt to show. 

LESSON CVIII. 

TOPIC 8. OUR DESTINY. 

No religion is perfect, and none can have an honest origin, which under- 
takes to settle the problems that areactually purposely hidden from man. That 
knowledge is denied is posted on every corner of the universe and in every 
pathway of the sky. It is our purpose to show this fact and then to 
show its significance; after which it will be easier to see what gates are open. 

The world never had more learned men than to-day; never more learned 
and holy religious men : ask any of them what they know of the destiny 
of man, and how they know it : and the answers will disclose nothing. 

LESSON CIX. 

TOPIC 9. ANIMAL LIFE. 

Surrounded as we are by every species of existence, associating with 
some, given rule over many and power to destroy all in the unequal struggle 
of mind over force, we are yet unable to probe the mystery of the best 
understood life among them. The horse, man's best animal friend, is a 
sealed book. We know his habits, his likes and dislikes ; but we do not 
know what he is, his mind, thoughts, feelings, nature, consciousness, nor the 
slightest phase of his life. The fly is a comrbon nuisance, but why it exists, 



88 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME THREE. 

its nature and consciousness, are hidden from us. The bird is often a pleas- 
ing friend, yet its real self is beyond the guess of the ablest scientest. 

There is a purpose in all this mystery. We are surrounded by super- 
abundant life, with no knowledge of what it is. 

LESSON ex. 

TOPIC 10. THE VITAL SPARK. 

The human body is coming to be partly known, yet the most important 
knowledge is forbidden : the spark of life. All things that grow are depend- 
ent upon the vital energy which rests at the fountain head. If the seed takes 
root this energy must originate the process ; if the tree dies, something goes 
out that the chemist's art has never touched. 

We know what chemical elements compose the dead body ; but no 
analysis ever peered into the living organism. All that is most important in 
knowledge, that which would give us a possible clue to what keeps life in 
the body, is denied us. A veil of impenetrable thickness hides it from our 
view ; knowledge is impossible ; and the design of creation is maintained. 

There is a reason for this mystery. 

LESSON CXI. 

TOPIC 11. REPRODUCTION. 

Since chemistry and the microscope have delved into the smaller worlds 
we have learned all about the processes of germination, except the one fact 
that alone may enthrall our interest, — what germination is. 

If we had acquired some knowledge of the spark of life it is probable 
that we would be still in the dark when we came to apply it to the investi- 
gation of reproduction. It is true that chemistry dissolves the ovum and 
tells us all about its composition ; and that the microscope reveals the minute 
particles which make up this tiny world ; but absolutely no light is thrown 
upon the problem of reproduction. 

Even the flower dust that impregnates its kind is seen, and the processes 

of germination are known, but what that germination is remains a mystery. 

We are helpless. 

LESSON CXII. 

TOPIC 12. PROTOPLASM. 

When the discovery of this primitive life was made and enlarged, the 



THE MYSTERIES. 89 



world of science waited to learn the one last fact of all. They have waited 
in vain. The development and growth of protoplasm are known, as the 
existence of man is known ; but the origin is hidden. 

We know that all animal life is composed of protoplasm originated in 
some plant ; and that man and plant are in fact alike, — elaborated proto- 
plasm. In expectant triumph we take a drop of protoplasm and subject it 
to analysis ; find four chemical elements, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and 
carbon, the common food of all life; look at these for the distinctive feature 
that gives protoplasm its nature ; and see no more. All is gone ; all is 
mystery; the basis of life flies from before the chemist, and leaves only four 
barren elements. Analysis destroys protoplasm before it is analysed. 

LESSOX CXIII. 

TOPIC 13. MIND. 

Every particle of animate matter is furnished with consciousness, or a 
perception of self -being. Supreme in mental development is man. 

The faculties of his mind include the power of memory, accumulation, 
and reference to experience ; and from these he elaborates the breadth and 
depth of its full scope. Yet he does not know why he thinks, how he thinks, 
with what he thinks, or what thinking is. All the pedantic books on the sub- 
ject never offered the slightest explanation of these problems; and it is safe to 
assert that the mind and all its processes are among the deepest mysteries of life. 

LESSON CXIY 

TOPIC 14. CHEMISTRY. 

No science is more important than chemistry, yet it explains operations 
merely. It describes no energy, it tells no fact, it sees no element. 

Take oxygen for instance, the most active of the elements ; we know its 
attributes by its operations; but no eye ever saw oxygen. Nitrogen, hydrogen 
and carbon are the associates of oxygen in all life ; and the four form the 
basis of existence. They are, therefore, the vital elements. Man has 
studied them with the most eager interest, but he knows them not, and 
knows of them only by their operations. 

Assuming that he might know them, he would still be ignorant of 
of why they came to be what they are. 



90 HOME COUESE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE THREE. 

LESSON cxy. 

TOPIC 15. THE EARTH. 

It is said that man is conquering the earth. When will he know more 
about it than that with which he comes in contact ? If knowledge is pur- 
posely denied him, the denial can refer only to things with which he does 
not openly associate. He belongs on the surface of the earth within limited 
range. Where he cannot go he cannot know. 

The poles are, therefore objects of his solicitude and speculation; and he 
spends time, money and lives in seeking to go where he cannot stay. From 
inference we believe the poles to be fields of ice ; some learned men argue 
that they are open seas ; others that, owing to their position, they must be 
lands of equable temperature and full of delight ; still others that the north 
pole is a magnetic realm, splendidly equipped for an ideal life. In the 
present state of travel, we know simply nothing of the poles. 

The interior of the earth is likewise a realm of speculation. If it is 
solid, what is it? If it is hollow, how thick is the crust? Man does not know. 

LESSON CXVI. 

TOPIC 16. GEAVITY. 

If a man drops from a balloon, he will go toward the earth and be 
killed. Why he cannot remain suspended in space, like the earth, he does 
not know. What compels him, against his will, to go to the ground, is not 
even a matter of speculation ; he simply does not know anything about it. 
No string is attached to his body whereby he is drawn down ; no force or 
energy is exerted, that he can see, feel, hear, taste, or smell ; his five senses 
are unable to realize the reason, and he has no other sense to employ in the 
investigation. Even if a two-pound weight is lifted up two feet and let go 
it will seek the earth, and its effect will be marked if the foot is in its way. 
Everything goes to the earth ; even air and gases have weight. 

This is called the attraction of gravity ; two words that mean abso- 
lutely nothing if we seek them as aids to the great mystery they describe. 

LESSON CXVII. 

TOPIC 17. COHESION. 

There are many things which man believes he understands ; but there 
are few concerning which he knows less than he does about cohesion. He 



THE MYSTERIES. 91 



can explain many of the operations of electricity, light and heat, while hav- 
ing no knowledge of the forces themselves ; but he has as yet been unable to 
formulate even the most meagre laws concerning the operation of cohesion, 
while the force itself is as mysterious as is electricity. 

Many scientists have supposed cohesion to be an energy which must be 
subject to certain laws ; and, in pursuing their inquiries, they have expected 
to collect this energy for use; as heat and electricity have been employed. 

A drop of water has slight cohesive strength among its particles ; a 
piece of cast iron has more ; a bar of wrought iron has remarkable tenacity 
of its particles ; a diamond still greater cohesive strength. Weight is quite 
independent of this power. 

The law of cohesion is necessary to life ; growth, form, even existence 
itself, depend upon the operation of this hidden force. It is the union of 
atoms into molecules, the union of molecules into elements of matter, the 
union of elements into bacteria, devs and angs, material substance, and 
life. But what it is, remains a deep mystery. 

LESSON CXVIII. 

T()PIC 18. EXPANSION. 

It would seem that a force so necessary to commercial operations, and 
so much used in daily life as that of expansion, would be understood; yet 
the profoundest mind can only tell us what it does, not what it is. 

Take, for instance, the action of air under the law of expansion and 
contraction, — they are both one, — and we are told that heat expands the 
air, making it lighter, and causing it to ascend ; or, we are told that the 
molecules which compose the air are driven farther apart by the action of 
heat, thereby increasing the bulk so that the specific weight is less, and the 
warm air rises. These explanations explain everything except the great 
original fact of expansion . The operation of a force is not the force itself. 
A savage, witnessing for the first time the death of a fellow-being from 
a gun shot, might easily understand the fact of killing, and yet be mystified 
as to the originating force. The expansive forces of steam, gunpowder and 
dynamite are of extraordinary importance ; and we are told that they are 
caused by a chemical disturbance which results in a sudden flying apart of 
the molecules which compose the substances ; but no one has attempted to 
explain in what manner or why the molecules fly apart. 



92 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE THREE. 

Contraction is the same operation as expansion, being a lesser degree of 
the latter, as cold is a lesser degree of heat. The withdrawal of heat 
causes a contraction of the bulk of a gas, liquid or solid, and a correspond- 
ing increase of specific gravity. Yet when cold solidifies a liquid, the solid 
expands ; ice being lighter than water ; solid iron being lighter than molten 
iron ; and the rule holding always true. 

This sudden reverse of the law of expansion, as far at least as ice is 
concerned, holds the key to the possibility of all life on earth ; for if ice 
were to sink in water, man could not live except as a tropical savage ; and 
we doubt if, even then, the rains, which make existence tolerable at the 
Equator, would be possible. 

Perhaps the law of expansion and contraction is as well known as any 
of the forces of Nature ; but it is certain that man is absolutely ignorant of 
the energy itself or its true cause. 

LESSON CXIX. 

TOPIC 19. HEAT. 

That heat, fire and light are forms of activity among the molecules and 
particles of matter, there can be no doubt. Scientists of late years are 
beginning to formulate well grounded theories as to the nature of heat in 
its operations ; but not as to the force itself, its origin and exhaustion. 

Heat and life are co-extensive ; without heat, life would become abso- 
lutely extinct; with too much heat, life is destroyed; with too little heat, 
life is held in abeyance. If the time ever comes when the mystery of life 
is to be solved, either in plant, beast or man, the discovery must be made on 
the lines of the causes and operations of heat. 

Fire may or may not be visible to the eye ; when visible it is called 
light ; when invisible, heat ; all light is fire-agitation ; all heat, fire and light 
are either the same or related forces ; yet how they originate, what they are, 
and in what manner their energies become dormant, must be termed the 
mysteries of abounding existence. 

LESSON CXX. 

TOPIC 20. ELECTEICITY. 

It is but a step from the consideration of heat to that of electricity ; 
for they seem to be in some way related. 



THE MYSTERIES. 93 



Edison, the man who has drawn from this energy the grandest results 
of invention, when asked what electricity is, said : " I know something of 
what it will do, but no one knows what it isj" It can be safely asserted 
that electricity is the mystery of mysteries among the forces of Nature. 

We may temper the heat and cold, and at our leisure examine their 
workings ; we may operate with every degree of light from the dim candle 
to the dazzling arc ; we may call the colors into our darkened room, so as to 
study them socially as well as leisurely; we may, in fact, deal deliberately with 
nearly all the forces of life and matter : but electricity is sure to elude our 
search, and to run from our scrutiny. 

Because its rapidity of movement causes friction and consequent agita- 
tion of molecules or atoms, we are wont to speak of it as light, or lightning; 
because the same friction causes fire and heat, we suppose it to be akin to 
flame ; yet the probable fact is the electricity is no more related to light, heat 
or fire than is gravity. An object passing swiftly through the air will pro- 
duce heat ; even a comet being turned into a ball of fire on entering our 
atmosphere. It may some day be learned that electricity is a quiet indwel- 
ling energy, aroused to speed and flame only when diverted from its nature. 
In the meantime it is shrouded in mystery. 

LESSON CXXI. 

TOPIC 21. COLOPv. 

As if to paint the earth, air and sky in endless beauty, color was made 
to meet the eye. It is an agency so entirely unnecessary to the needs of life, 
and so perfectly in harmony with the sublime yearnings of the soul, that 
more than mystery attends its existence. 

It happens so easily, that we may call it accident; it comes and goes, 
and changes so readily, that it may be unreal ; yet its form, regularity, 
and endless blending are proofs of substantial design. 

Color is not light ; yet on the withdrawal of light the most beautiful 
colors disappear both apparently and in fact. The perfectly white ray may 
be separated into the three elementary colors, the seven primary hues, and 
multitudes of shades. Without learning what light is, science has gone a 
great way toward the discovery of the causes of color variations, but not the 
causes of color. The mystery seems too great for man to learn. 



94 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE THREE. 

LESSON CXXII. 

TOPIC 22. FRAGRANCE. 

Some may plead that the endless odors of the earth, of food, flower, 
and chemistry, are necessary for the aid of man in selecting his food. 

The nose is necessary for the interpretation of fragrance, as is the eye 
for color; and the nose is generally prompted to warn us of the poisons of 
air, food and drink, as well as to allure us to the more palatable of these; 
yet many deadly things are not detected by this organ. Of all the senses, 
that of smell seems to answer more nearly than the others to the claims of 
evolution. For the interpretation of food it does not seem necessary, although 
it stimulates the appetite by exciting the medulla oblongata, which controls 
the stomach. It is well known that a fragrant odor, as of cooking meat, 
will excite the nerves that run from the nose to the medulla oblongata, that 
the latter will excite the nerves that lead to the stomach, and that the 
stomach will deposit the exciting gastric juices which cause appetite, and 
support life. 

Apart from the delights of food aroma there is a fragrance of leaf, 
tree and flower, which can have no relation to the appetite of the body. It 
seems to feed the soul. Whence comes it, what is it, and how dies it, are 
mysteries. Chemical analysis can obtain no grasp on odor, aroma, or fragrance. 

LESSON CXXIII. 

TOPIC 23. DISEASE. 

There are schools of various kinds throughout the civilized world which 
prepare physicians for the practice of medicine, and nominally to baffle the 
diseases of the human race. Full of ambition to do good to his fellow beings, 
the young man enters the school, only to discover that the more he learns 
the less he knows; and he is compelled to content himself with an acquisi- 
tion of the names of the complex parts which constitute the body, and the 
nomenclature of medicines. These are the "technical terms " of his pro- 
fession. The body of man, that which is physical or animal : to a layman 
seems but a simple machine, capable of much use and abuse ; yet, within a 
brief limit of time, it has furnished to the medical profession a vocabulary 
of words capable of filling a large dictionary, including more terms than 
were known to the English speaking world in Shakespeare's day, and requir- 



THE 3IYSTEEIES 95 



ing a generation of time to be conned and mastered. Whether this cumber- 
some vocabulary is in part unnecessary, or hinders the progress of practical 
science in its war upon disease, need not claim our attention, it simply serves 
to demonstrate the fact that every new advance in this direction, instead 
of solving the mysteries of disease, only tends to deepen them. 

The happiest discovery of the age is the relation of bacteria to disease ; 
yet the result thus far attained has accomplished little more than a certain 
degree of caution in the prevention of illness. While we know the effects, 
we do not know the cause, nor why the cause is permitted to exist. 

In almost every decade some sanguine soul declares that sickness is 
unnecessary and must eventually be driven from the face of the earth ; yet 
ninety-nine persons out of every hundred die from diseases which defy the 
best medical skill of the age. The learned man has to tell us what disease 
is ; and the philosopher, why it is. 

LESSON CXXIV. 

TOPIC 24. RELIGKW. 

If all religions were swept out of the world, or if the doctrines of inspir- 
ation and deistic authority had never been known, the extraordinary advances 
of science would bring the most civilized and intelligent minds to one of the 
following conclusions : 

1. All creation must be controlled by one" Supreme Being. 

2. All creation must be controlled by two Supreme Beings at war with 
each other. 

3. All creation must be controlled by an Intelligence which exists 
only in the operation of its laws. 

No matter what conclusion is most acceptable or most reasonable, no 
specific proof is furnished as to which is the true one, while abundant evid- 
ence prevails to show that there is no escape fr ^m at least one of them. It 
is immaterial, as far as man is concerned, w^ ich is true ; for his place in 
Nature cannot be affected by either choice, -de either is, or is not, destined 
to live again ; and on the solution of this ..remendous alternative rests the 
basis of every form of religion, past, presei t and future. 

The mystery of religion begins whcin belief is formed; and, as it is man's 
first nature to believe something, tie whole race is therefore instinctively 
religious, always has been, and always will be. 



96 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME THREE. 

The strength of religious belief is no evidence of the truth of religion 
generally, or of the superiority of any special form or kind ; nor is the wide 
diversity of belief any evidence of the falsity of general religion. If one 
will carefully study the whole subject from the standpoint of exact fair- 
ness to all people, he will be satisfied that belief is most assured where it has 
the least reason to be; that ignorance makes one most positive in every 
belief ; and that the broadest, noblest, most intelligent minds accept religion 
as a standard of morality, conforming their lives to its demands, and abandon- 
ing all haggling over the technical questions of creed, doctrine or tenets. 

A fool knows ; an ignorant person believes he knows ; a wise man 
desires to know. In the meantime the mystery which envelops the world, 
is as deep as ever. The fool will never know that he does not know ; the 
ignorant mind will always wear the serenity of shallow consciousness ; and 
the wise man can never know. 

There are numberless people who believe certain religious doctrines as 
strongly as others believe claims exactly opposite; and the sincerity of both 
is beyond question. Hundreds of religions have followers who place implicit 
trust in some doctrine that is fatally antagonistic to others. The question of 
which is right is always settled one way : " mine is right, all others are 
wrong." Civilization cannot be relied upon to eradicate false or absurd 
beliefs. The Mormons are sure that the Book of Mormon is of divine 
origin ; and, no matter what deception may have been practiced upon a pre- 
ceding generation, I am sure that hundreds of intelligent men and women 
believe this to day, as sincerely as the most devout Christians believe that 
the New Testament is inspired. It is an easy matter for people a long 
distance away to scoff at those who belong to the Mormon church ; but, 
while they consist of all classes, the best of them are intelligent, humane, 
gentle and of the highest integrity. They have been taught the Mormon 
faith from childhood ; and the earnestness with which they cling to their 
belief, furnishes a modern illustration of the dangers of positiveness. A book 
that seems certainly a stupendous fraud, is clothed in the holy garb of 
religion, and becomes the basis of a new Church ; teaches the noblest moral- 
ity, except in one particular ; and is cherished by a large following. Its 
increase has been marvelous, even against the opposition of national force ; 
had it arisen at the time of the decadence of Greek and Roman paganism. 



THE MYSTEEIES. 97 



wlien the world was ripe for a change, it could easily have become dominant; 
and an origin which is now open to attack, would have been accepted as loo 
sacred to be questioned. 

These things are mentioned, not to raise doubts as to religion, as will 
be seen in the subsequent Tomes ; but to show how little is actually known, 
and how much is hidden from man. If we shall come to see that mystery 
is the earthly lot of the human race, and shall conform our lives to that 
fact, a grander philosophy will spring up in the soul. 

Had it been the intention of God to make any religion apparent to 
man, that intention could easily have been confirmed in a thousand ways in 
every age and generation. In our day we have the Jewish religion, which 
depends upon the Old Testament and rejects the New ; the hundred forms 
of Christianity which depend upon both ; and some which are based upon 
the New alone; to say nothing of that enormous proportion of the world 
which worships other deities. It is not only fair but necessary to admit 
that each worshipper is as sincere as his antagonist, and that each thinks he 
alone is right. Notwithstanding the accumulated diversity of beliefs, new 
deilominations, sects and schisms are continually coming forward ; Christian 
Europe is an armed camp ; and the United States is tossing in the throes of 
social and racial hatred. In the mad rush for wealth, religion as well as 
morality are brushed aside; under the influences of luxury, the well-to-do 
classes consult only their tastes and convenience in worshipping God ; 
clergymen modify their ministrations to suit merely the comfort of their 
parishioners ; and the general trend of the Christian religion is slowly but 
surely drifting toward lax creeds on the one hand, and hairsplitting disquisi- 
tions and disputes upon unimportant tenets on the other; while the Divine 
command, "On earth, peace, good- will toward men," is poorly administered. 
" God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform." 



A TALK WITH OUR STUDENTS. 

At this place it is essential to outline the duties which properly belong 
to our students in Philosophy ; and it is unnecessary to say that all who read 
these pages are regarded as our students. Many guiding hints have already 



98 H031E COURSE IN PHILOSOFHY—TOME THREE. 

been given them as to the course of procedure. Let, then, every person who 
takes an interest in these studies and problems take an active part in advanc- 
ing the school of philosophy, by contributing some thoughts to its literature. 

REQUIREMENTS. 

1. It is expected that every reader of these pages will send at least 
one original Large Essay, selecting the subject from the following list of 

MYSTERIES. 

Topic 1. THE GENERAL MYSTERIES OF LIFE. 

Topic 2. SPACE. 

Topic 3. IMMENSITY. 

Topic 4. A RAY OF LIGHT. 

Topic 5. ORIGIN OF MAN. 

Topic 6. WHY WE LIVE. 

Topic 7. WHY WE DIE. 

Topic 8. OUR DESTINY. 

Topic 9. ANIMAL LIFE. 

Topic 10. THE VITAL SPARK. 

Topic 11. REPRODUCTION. 

Topic 12. PROTOPLASM. 

Topic 13. MIND. 

Topic 14. CHEMISTRY. 

Topic 15. THE EARTH. 

Topic 16. GRAVITY. 

Topic 17. COHESION. 

Topic 18. EXPANSION. 

Topic 19. HEAT. - 

Topic 20. ELECTRICITY. ( 

Topic 21. — COLOR. 

Topic 22. FRAGRANCE, 

Topic 23. DISEASE. 

Topic 24. RELIGION. 

2. Any one or more Topics may be chosen. 

3. The essay must be scholarly, thoughtful, and sound in reasoning. 

4. Speculative Philosophy is not permissible. We do not care to 
read essays dealing with theories, fancies, or pictures of the imagination. 



THE MYSTERIES. 99 



5. If authorities are quoted, due credit should be given; includiug 
the name of the author, his work, edition and page. 

6. Any Home Student in the Shaftesbury School of Philosophy who 
complies with these conditions will, on reaching a certain degree of scholar- 
ship in his essay, receive a Certificate under the seal of Shaftesbury College ; 
and for every essay so written, a separate certificate of honorable attain- 
ments will be awarded. 

7. All essays shall remain the property of Shaftesbury College, and 
shall constitute a part of its original literature. 

8. The student who becomes the author of any essay in philosophy, 
may request that his name shall or shall not appear as such author, in case 
the essay is published ; or he may use a nom de plume for publication only. 

9. In writing an essay on any subject, it is especially desired that the 
ideas should be as nearly original as is consistent with reason and truth. 
The fact that we are conscious of the correctness of our own views, need not 
influence another who does not share that consciousness. 

Our purpose is to excite in the minds of ambitious thinkers an extraor- 
dinary desire to learn lohat we are, and why ive are ; and, in order to leave 
the mind of the student free from opinions, bias, or limitations, the whole 
field of research and knowledge is open to him. That happy condition of 
the mind which enables it to throw off all chains and think as freely as the 
sun shines, is the first stage in true philosophy. 

For Rules as to Small Essays, see end of Tome Ten. 

Our pupils are entitled to life membership in the Shaftesbury School of 
Philosophy ; and there is, consequently, no period of time when they cease to 
belong to this school. The winning of the Degree does not graduate them. 
The mind may go on gathering its store of knowledge ; and, little by little, 
those who grope in the darkness of these mysteries may gain some degree of 
light. 

We desire to place our pupils in communion with one another; to allow 
them to exchange views, to contribute to each other's fund of information, 
and to prove of mutual mental benefit to each other. But more than this we 
hope to furnish to all our pupils, from time to time, new information on all 
the great subjects discussed in the following Tomes. In order that we may 
do this, we request that they shall keep us informed of their address, in case 
of change. 

L.ofC. 



TOME FOUR. 



BEGINNINGS. 



LESSON CXXV. 

The Child-Germ. — Surrounded by a world of complex life at the 
present day, we wonder at its conditions, and inquire what it is all for. 

There is the earth, a great round mass floating in the sky, in the midst 
of myriad others. There is the land, full of incipient life ready to spring 
into spontaneous existence, even if all created things were annihilated on its 
surface. There is the water, teeming with protoplasm from which all else 
follows. There is life, active and dormant, in every conceivable shape, and 
adapted to every possible purpose, with every shade of intellectual power 
from the mind of man to the simple cell that drifts in a multitude of waste. 
The human form, now developed in maturity, was a child some years 
ago ; the child was a babe a minute old ; the babe was a living organism in 
the body of its mother ; the organism was a tiny cell, as fascinating to the 
gaze of the scientist as a complex being ; and this cell is the beginning of a 
human life. 

The first problem that faces us is the question : — Is the primary life cell 
originated by the parents or has it been transmitted through the parents ? 

If the former is true, then the body is capable of creating the seeds of 
reproduction ; but if, instead of originating, it merely transmitted them, then 
the life of the child was in the single cell from which its parent sprang, and 
that parent's life was in each previous cell, back to the beginning of the race. 
In other words, the identical germ of a child born to-day was contained in 
the cell of its ancestor thousands of years ago. It is important that this 
problem be settled one way or the other ; and our students are invited to 
express their opinions, no matter what view may be stated here. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXVI. 
All Life Originates in a Cell. — This statement is not strictly true, if 
we look upon life as mere vitality ; but if by life we refer to an organized 
being, then it is absolutely true ; and as such we regard it. 

(100) 



BEGINNINGS. 101 



Every organized being has life, and every living thing is an organized 
being, whether it is classed under the animal or the vegetable divisions. 
Thus, a leaf, a flower, a root, a stem, a seed, a tree, a man, horse, insect, bird, 
fish or worm, is each in itself a living being, and is derived from the same 
kind of beginning, a cell, — a tiny drop of matter too small to be seen by the 
naked eye. 

While it is a settled fact that man and plant-life, fish and fowl, and all 
existence may be traced to protoplasm, or cell-organisms, it is an open ques- 
tion, and one worthy of our closest consideration, whether the same protoplasm 
may develop into either animal or vegetable life. This we ask our students to 
answer. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the eud of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXVII. 

Life Consists of Three Requisites. — First, every organism, whether a 
cell or higher type, must be capable of taking food, assimilating the necessary 
portion, throwing off the waste, and yet retain its individuality. Even the 
tiny cell can do this easily. 

Second, every organism must be capable of possessing functions ; or 
specific duties to be performed. The cell is the simplest example of func- 
tional life. 

Third, every organism must be capable of reproduction; that is, it must 
possess the power to throw off a part of itself and thereby produce another 
organism like itself. This act is, in the cell, very simple ; and in the higher 
types very complex ; yet the most complex form of reproduction is but a 
multiplying of one act, called fission, or the separation of one cell into two, 
each a perfect cell. This marvellous fact must be remembered. 

Question. — Would any two of the foregoing requisites constitute life ; 
and if so is such an organism to be found in Nature f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXVIII. 
Reproduction in all Cases Consists of Cell-division. — Living things 
all originate in the cell ; and when the cell comes into being it first begins 
to assimilate food in the form of protoplasm. This food increases its bulk, and 
immediately it gives birth to another cell by merely dividing itself in two. 
This is the simplest form of reproduction known. 



102 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FOUR. 

In that most intricate and complex form of reproduction which occurs 
in the human race, the child-life originates in a single cell called the ovum 
or egg. The cell is contained in its receptacle amidst protoplasm, from 
which it draws sustenance and grows. The single cell divides into two ; each 
into two again ; the four become eight ; the eight become sixteen ; and so 
on, little by little, until the object takes definite shape, and becomes visible 
to the naked eye. 

This human ovum resembles all cells ; and, when it divides and sub- 
divides, the mass of new cells all resemble each other and the original. 

Question : Does each new cell possess the potentialities of the first cell, or 
ovum, from which it sprang f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXIX. 

Protoplasm is Essential to all Life. — There are many so called 
chemical elements in the mass which constitutes the substance of the earth ; 
of these, four are called the vital elements. They are oxygen, nitrogen, 
hydrogen and carbon. While promising our students to avoid scientific 
names and terms, we are compelled to use the four words which express 
these most important elements. They are, indeed, common to all readers of 
fair intelligence. 

As the four vital elements are necessary to all life, and as each cell is 
dependent upon these elements we may safely assert that there is a mysteri- 
ous connection between them and the life of man. No course in philosoph- 
ical training could omit the study of these great essentials. The difficulty 
of the physical problems of life, rests in the inability of our chemists to tell 
us what these elements in fact are. 

We catch a small mass of protoplasm and study its active life. Desiring 
to know what it is, as well as what it does, we subject it to the chemist's 
art; we analyze the little mass and find oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and 
carbon. We put it back, but it is dead and will not again live as proto- 
plasm. No chemist, no scientist has ever been able to analyze protoplasm 
without destroying it. The vital principle escapes and, in its departing, 
leaves no record of what it is, whence it came, or whither it went. How 
often the great scientists of the world have yearned for some evidence of the 
nature of this strange visitor ! 



BEGIXNINGS. 103 



QuESTiox : From what source comes the vitality of protoplasm f ^ 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXX. 

The Cell Contains a Nucleus. — The human ovum is a simple cell; 
the study of its nature soon involves us in some very obstinate difficulties. 

Every student who is in earnest will obtain a blank book and make 
drawings of the things which we shall describe. It is far better to endeavor 
to originate these drawings without the aid of others ; for the mind is often 
inclined to wander from the propositions of science, unless ?ome very exact- 
ing demand is made upon it. It is not necessary to make the drawings 
accurate. Nature herself is profuse in her freedom of lines and contour. 

Take a pencil, with a rubber conveniently at hand, and draw a circle 
about an inch in diameter ; the size may vary, and the drawing may be far 
from round. Imagine this circle to be a globule of protoplasm enlarged 
many hundred times ; or in other words your diagram is the covering or 
outer surface of a highly magnified cell. Within your circle make a mass 
of very light lines to represent the protoplasm which is enclosed in the cell- 
cover. 

Now comes the interesting part. Anywhere within the circle draw 
another circle almost but not quite as small as you can easily make it. This 
smaller circle will be near but not too close to the outer covering. It is 
called the nucleus. 

QuESTiox : Hoiv is the nucleus originated f. J 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXI. 

The Cell-Nucleus Contains the Vital Principle. — This fact is now 
well known to all scientists. Several propositions face us : the nucleus may 
be wanting, while the cell contains vital protoplasm ; the potentialities of the 
cell may produce the nucleus ; and the nucleus, when present, always con- 
trols the cell. Let us see what this interesting agent is. 

To the scientist the constant use of the microscope is second nature. 
Microscopes have always been serviceable, even when they were of the most 
primitive construction. The first authentic use of the instrument is recorded 
in the book published in 1()71 by Athanasius Kircher, a polisher of lenses. 
Although he could magnify but thirty-two diameters, or about one thousand 



104 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03JE FOUB. 

times, he was able to discern the minute life of protoplasm. Since then the 
power and clearness of the microscope have been increased almost at the 
will of man ; but the largest magnifier is not necessarily the best. 

At the present day, by the aid of the microscope, we are enabled to see 
the cell, its nucleus, and the contents of the latter, though not their struc- 
ture. It is well to remember, therefore, that the dividing line between the 
power of the microscope and its limitation is found in the attempt to discover 
the structure of the contents of the nucleus of the cell. This is the point 
where the mystery of life begins. 

Imagine your pencil to possess a power beyond that of the best micro- 
scope : take, as it were, the nucleus which you have drawn, out of the cell in 
which you drew it. At another part of the page make an enlarged nucleus, 
and mark it properly, so that in the future you will know that it is a magni- 
fied portion of the first cell. It may be a large ring. Within it draw about 
ten worms, or worm-shaped creatures ; make them very black, and allow 
each to be not quite as long as the diameter of the nucleus ; although they 
lie curled in various directions. Do not attempt to see these clearly in the 
mind, but first draw theni as well as you can. Scientists call these worms 
idants, and the units of which they are composed, ids. They are in fact 
vital molecules, and such we will call them ; for the term molecules will be 
used freely in this study, while ids and idants will be abandoned, together 
with thousands of confusing words useful only to technical science. 
Question. — How do the vital molecules multiply f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXII. 

A Vital Molecule is Composed of Atoms. — In another part of the 
page draw a worm-shaped object, and mark it as being a magnified portion 
of your diagram of the nucleus. Now make another drawing of the worm 
divided into ten round parts. These ten parts, when together, constitute the 
worm; therefore, in a single nucleus, there are one hundred vital molecules. 
Various scientists claim that there are in the neighborhood of a hundred, a 
few more, or few less; but I am satisfied that in the nucleus of the human 
ovum there are always exactly one hundred vital molecules, unless the cell 
is diseased. 

Let the next drawing be that of a single vital molecule, made very large. 



BEGINXINGS. 105 



It is here that a new step in scientific research must be taken, or the pursuit 
of further light be forever checked. It is an easy matter to say in a general 
way that the vital molecule is composed of Atoms ; for the chemist has often 
said the same thing of his molecules, although he has assumed the theory 
without any positive knowledge on the subject. I do not propose to deal in 
speculations in a single instance. 

Before proceeding further, let us see what we have. In the first place 
we find that all life, whether animal or vegetable, originates in the cell. In 
the second place we find that this cell, — a globule smaller than the eye can 
detect, — consists of an outer cover, an inner mass of protoplasm, and a 
nucleus. We next find that the nucleus contains exactly one hundred little 
specks, almost too small to be seen with the most powerful microscope, called 
vital molecules. We are compelled to call a halt, or else resort to other 
means. 

Question. — Has the jprevailing use of the numeral one hundred any 
relation to the molecules f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXIII. 

The Cell Produces the Nucleus. — While many authors assert this 
fact, and others are silent on the question, it is in several ways provable; 
indeed, if we had no positive knowledge on the subject, the course of cell- 
reproduction clearly shows it. As soon as the cell is formed and commences 
to grow, it divides, and two cells are seen, each with a nucleus ; while the 
parent cell retains its nucleus complete with one hundred vital molecules. 
It is true that the daughter cell does not always have a nucleus ; and, when 
it does, it is not formed at once ; but it is clearly true that the protoplasmic 
mass within the cell originates, or in fact creates the nucleus. The power 
to do this is marvelous, as are all the operations of life. 

QuESTiOX. — What is the differeyice in potentiality between a nucleus-cell 
and a non-nucleus-cell f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXIV. 
The Nucleus Controls the Cell. — We have seen that the cell produces 
the nucleus ; and there is abundant evidence that the latter controls the 
former. As the Shaftesbury Philosophy argues the principles of morality, 



106 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FOUR. 

religion and government in the larger life of the world, from the evidences 
seen in primitive existence, it is important that these little things should be 
carefully studied. 

Every man and woman of normal constitution is a free moral agent ; 
and the fullness of this freedom causes a clash between individuals. One 
man's rights must cease where the next man's begins ; hence comes the conflict 
that has made the world red with crime. To avoid the committing of sin, 
the best men of all ages have attempted to make restraining laws and moral 
codes ; yet it has been difficult to ascertain what are wrongs per se, and what 
conduct should prevail. 

It is proper to state here, and to confirm in later pages, the great fact 
which pervades our Philosophy, — that the rules of individual, social and 
national life are to be found in the Atoms, molecules, and cells from which 
all life springs. These small beginnings are our ancestors and our parents. 
The wonderful organism, known as the human body, — the temporary home 
of the Soul, — originated in a single cell ; and the grandest genius that ever 
lived is no greater than the aggregate of cells of which his body is composed. 
All his powers and faculties were once potentialities in a single cell. 

I have drawn rules from the conduct of small life, as I call it, and have 
carefully compared them with similar rules applied to larger life, as of 
people and nations ; and I am absolutely certain that Nature has formulated 
her laws for mankind in the tiny organisms ; with this advantage, — as men 
are not infallible, they may be mistaken in their conception of what laws and 
customs are best for themselves, but as the cell life is fresh from the hand of 
its Creator, there can be no mistake. 

It may be argued that cell-life is full of inherited evil, and therefore 
cannot be infallible ; but this inherited evil is a dormant potentiality, and is 
never manifest in the cell, nor even in many successions of aggregations that 
follow. We shall fully meet this argument hereafter. 

Having said this much, we will recur to the cell itself, and here find a 
lesson worthy of careful thought. It appears [that in the cover is a mass of 
protoplasm ; the cover serving merely as a boundary of the mass. In this 
protoplasm is a vitality which escapes on our attempting to analyze it ; but 
which will receive attention later on. As long as the cell is alive, the 
Atomic members of the protoplasmic body are imbued with intelligence, and 



BEGIKNIAGS. 10*7 

this intelligence is individual ; that is, each Atom possesses intelligence. 
Almost immediately they have an understanding among themselves, which 
results in the selection, and possibly the election, of one hundred molecules, 
which instantly come together as the cell-nucleus, and ever thereafter hold 
control over the cell. This selection may occur in each new-made cell. 
Question. — Does the nucleus body elect a head or leader f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXV. 

It is the Purpose of the Governing Board to Preserve the Indi- 
viduality of the species of life from which it originated. — We have 
called the one hundred vital molecules, selected by the cell as a nucleus, 
the governing board ; and such it, in fact, is. It is an aggregate of many 
powers and of many purposes ; all of which are communicated to and 
appreciated by the cell atoms. In other words it is an emphatic expression 
of the cell itself, condensed into smaller space for the sake of greater power. 

In this governing board is an energy of knowledge, a dynamic force of 
intelligence, which is the sum of all the faculties of its ancestry. Thus, if 
the cell is from human parents, it carries in all its Atoms every tendency of 
character, mind and physical development, which the parents possessed. 
How this occurs, we shall consider herafter. If the skin contains the pig- 
ment which colors the Negro, it will not be forgotten in the cell ; and each 
cell parent will transmit the same memory to its daughter cell ; a thousand 
new cells will catch it, and thus multiply the fact, keeping pace with the 
growth of the human child. All this seems wonderful ; so it is ; but we 
shall endeavor to make it exceedingly simple in its fullest details. 

Question : How can intelligence multiply f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXVI. 

A Cell Aggregate is a Hereditary Mixture. — The flower of an apple 
may receive the vital dust from an adjoining apple tree ; and, upon maturing, 
the apple will produce seed that will contain the characteristics of both trees. 
A small limb from each tree, if planted or budded on root stock, will grow 
into the same kind of a tree as that from which it is cut, and will produce the 
same kind of apples ; but if a seed of the apple which grew from the mixed 



108 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

flower, is made to grow, it will be sure to produce a tree whose fruit will 
be the result of the mixture of the two trees. 

A Negro intermarrying with a white person will produce a mulatto ; 
an Indian a half-breed ; an ass and mare, a mule ; and so on. These are 
prominent characteristics, and might be readily reproduced. The more 
intricate process appears to be that by which character, traits of mind and 
heart, love of avocation, and criminal propensities are transmitted. 

The mixture of hereditary tendencies furnishes an interesting study. The 
mother often reappears in the daughter ; the father in the son ; or both par- 
ents reappear in either. Why is this ? If both parents are equally consti- 
tuted the child should represent both equally. I have noticed that if the 
mother is weak in general vital vigor, a son would resemble the father ; and 
a daughter partly the father and the maternal grand-parents, if the latter 
were vigorous : otherwise the father entirely ; the reverse being true in case 
of a son whose father was weak. This fact and many others prove that the 
single cell, from which the offspring originates, must carry in itself alone the 
tendencies of previous generations. 

Question : How does the cJiaracter of a grand-parent get into a single 
<ieU, two generations later f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXVII. 

Inorganic Matter. — As protoplasm is the simplest form of life, and is 
a part only of the earth, and as no other life exists, it follows that the great 
mass of the earth is inorganic. 

Let us take a rock and break it in two; one of the pieces we again break 
in two ; and so continue until the smallest particle that can be seen with the 
naked eye remains. We now employ a microscope and find that this mere 
speck of dust is a world of particles, containing more millions than we can 
count. 

The process of division goes on, but in another way ; we employ a 
larger microscope, and the particles appear more numerous. Still another 
microscope, and the particles run together in a sort of blur. There is some- 
thing operating to mar the view. At last we use the largest magnifying 
agency we can procure, — a microscope costing a fortune, — and the particles 
are now hopelessly blurred. There is no hope of ever procuring a power 



BEGINNINGS 109 



sufficient to disclose the ultimate composition of matter, as long as ordinary- 
light is used. 

Question : Of what value is inorganic matter f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXVIII. 

There is a Limit to Divisibility. — In the realms of speculative science 
two theories have prevailed as to the ultimate condition of matter. One 
theory maintains that there is no ultimate particle ; that is, that the smallest 
unit that we may see with the naked eye is seen to be composed of millions 
of units under a microscope ; and that, if lenses could be procured of suffi- 
cient power, each one of these many millions would be seen to be composed 
of millions and billions more ; and so on forever and forever. 

Opposed to this theory is the Atomic ; or the belief that, while matter is 
composed of infinitesimally small particles, there must be an ultimate indi- 
visible atom. This theory has been maintained by the majority of thinkers 
and investigators ; but both classes agree that no proof exists of either claim. 

Of all the problems that flooded the brain of my youth, this was the 
most constantly before me. I wrote many manuscripts upon the questions 
involved, and deduce the following propositions from them : 

If matter is always divisible, the process of division must end some- 
where ; either at a limit where units are useless, and therefore practically 
indivisible ; or else there is what answers to nothingness in the beginning of 
composition. Neither of these alternatives is consistent with the plan of 
creation. 

There are certain primary laws at the beginning of composition ; and 
if there are no ultimate particles, these laws must be spiritual and not 
material ; which is contrary to life. 

In later years I found, on experiment, that the blur which is presented 
under a large-power microscope is not due to the instrument itself, but to 
the condition of the light used. From other sources I had become convinced 
that light is a vibratory action of ether, and that ether is composed of the 
smallest particles in Nature, arranged in lines, and pervading all space. 

If, therefore, light is necessary to the use of the microscope, and light 
is composed of Atoms in vibration, then it would be impossible, under the 
aid of vibrating Atoms, to see Atoms ; and a blur must be the result. These 



110 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

facts and other definite experiments mentioned elsewhere, convinced me that 
there is but a slight step from a moderately-large microscope to the secret 
of all life, to the fountain-head of existence. The necessity of a new 
means of sight became the mother of invention in this particular case. 

Question. — If there is an ultimate indivisible particle, of what substance 
is it composed f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Ri;les for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXXXIX. 

Pul-Glow is Finer than Light. — Much that is stated here may be 
unnecessary to those who are familiar with the work on Higher Magnetism. 
In a less technical manner we will repeat some of the facts there given. 

What is known as Pul-glow is the faint light which is given off the end 
of an ordinary Atom. This light is an energy or impulse that seems to 
shine of itself without the slightest activity ; whereas the various forms of 
general light are all composed of Atoms in motion. 

As stated in Higher Magnetism, in the excitement caused by a fixed posi- 
tion of two or more Atoms in which the Pul-ends are forced to be near each 
other without the power of repulsion, an extra glow is emitted, which is of 
great importance in magnetic culture. Resembling this light is the action 
of phosphorescence, which some declare to be a slow fire, but which is in fact 
a combination of fire and Pul-glow. In the same line is the phosphorescence 
of putrefaction, when Pul-glow is thrown off ; and certain bacteria on bread 
emit a light strong enough to enable one to photograph it. Another speci- 
men of the same glow is seen in the flaming eyes of an excited animal, or 
the quieter glance of a magnetic person. Everybody has witnessed Pul- 
glow in the eyes of a cat. 

Such glow is the only original and the only inactive light that exists. 
As it is thrown from the end of an Atom, it is necessarily of finer nature 
than the Atom itself ; and as common light is Atomic vibration, and there- 
fore larger than the Atom, it would be impossible to use it in studying the 
latter. 

Question. — l^hat causes the fire in the eye? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXL. 
Magnetism Excites Pul-glow. — What is properly called personal 



BEGINNINGS. Ill 

magnetism is a vigorous vitality in the ganglia, or nerve centers, whereby a 
superabundance of electrical energy is made to exist in the gray matter of 
the body. This magnetism may be cultivated. 

I wrote some years ago a book containing a large number of progressive 
exercises which experiment had proved would increase this power ; and 
followed the work with a more comprehensive book called Higher Magnet- 
ism. Both volumes have now reached the fifth edition; and, as they attract 
only students and investigators, their acceptance is proof of their value in the 
cultivation of nerve- vitality. 

The importance of some such means of help may be readily seen when 
it is known that a magnetised or electrified brain may furnish light of a finer 
nature than that usually provided by nature. It is well known that a cat 
can see in the dark by reason of her power to create a light of her own. I 
have made numerous experiments to prove it is the sense of sight which is 
operated, and not that of hearing. A mouse let loose in a perfectly dark 
room will take a devious course amid chairs and various obstacles ; and a 
cat will always catch it by either following, or heading it off. During the 
moment of excitement she will throw a light from her eyes that others may 
see distinctly. 

This form of light is either a species of ordinary Atomic vibration, or 
a Pul-glow ; I believed it must be the former, until I proved it to be the 
latter ; and it must take its place along with phosphorescence, putrefaction, 
bacteria and similar glows. 

That men were able by practice to increase their own electrical condi- 
tion was proved a hundred years ago ; and, especially in the French Academy, 
the annals are full and scientifically reliable. The very fact that life exists 
in the body compels the presence of electrical vitality, not mechanical, but 
nervous ; and the quantity of the latter determines the degree of life, 
buoyancy, or healthful vigor that is possessed by any individual. 

To increase this by the exercise of the will is the highest desideratum 
in physical life. While exercise may do it, the progress is more speedy if 
regime is followed during and after the period of practice. A large number 
of tensing and other movements are necessary ; during which the body 
should be allowed a general rest occasionally, broken by ordinary exercise in 
the open air. The disposition must be kept strong in the higher purposes 



112 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FOUR. 

of life, and free from all irritaticg influences, or should rise above them. 
An irritable person cannot cultivate magnetism. The quantity of food eaten 
should almost exactly balance the requirements of the body ; and the charac- 
ter of the food should be the most healthful, while not too stimulating. 
Lastly, I hold that the moral nature should be free from taint of dishonesty, 
or meanness. The most magnetic person in the world, not otherwise defi- 
cient, is he or she who has the confidence of a noble moral nature. For 
these reasons, already more fully stated in Higher Magnetism, this course of 
study in Philosophy is made the termination of a series of books on physi- 
cal health, called the three books of the Ralston Health Club ; also the 
cultivation of higher morality, called One Hundred Points of Character, 
and the two books on Magnetism. 

I mention these facts in detail, in order that others may pass through 
the experiences with which I have been favored, and which, upon being 
related in the pages of this work, will excite the suspicion of small minds, 
unless a way is open to their examination by others. 

Question. — By what process does regime aid in the development oj 
magnetism f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLL 

The Cultivation of Pul-glow. — The interweaving of a series of 
studies on health, character, magnetism, and philosophy, has been the life 
work of the author. 

In the consideration of magnetism alone I have spent more than twenty- 
five years, involving in one class of experiments over one hundred thousand 
trials, from which certain laws were deduced and made permanent because of 
their uniform operation. To this fact there are many permanent witnesses. 

Through processes as wearing as the most arduous labor, I arrived at 
the conclusions about to be stated ; after first being able to develop vital 
electricity in my own body and brain to the very highest degree. Lying 
awake at night in a very dark room, I seemed to be in a flood of light, which 
did not disappear on closing the eyelids. From letters received from my 
students, I am sure that the same experience has occurred to thousands of 
others. Indeed, there is nothing in it to excite wonder. This electrical 
condition delays sleep until it has subsided, and is painful when too intense. 



BEGINNINGS. 113 



To allow -it to remain unutilized was not my purpose. I found that by 
closing the eyes when the Pul-glow was but moderate, a confused mass of 
particles were visible ; and thus far many of my pupils have gone. This I 
call the first step in Magnetic Vision. On taking the second step, which 
consists in exciting a stronger Pul-glow, certain phenomena appear, consist- 
ing of leaf, flower, and varied forms. During the past few years I have 
received constant letters from pupils who are working out these phenomena, 
and many of their reports are accompanied by diagrams which I am collecting. 

Request. — All students who pursue this course of study in connection 
with that of Higher Magnetism, are requested to write me accounts of the 
results of their experiments. 

Question. — In the second stage of Magnetic Vision, from what source 
come the phenomena of sight f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLII. 

The Third Step. — The last and most important step is the third. 
On reaching it the phenomena of sight disappear, and a steady light shines 
forth, which affects outward objects ; and if confined within the limits of a 
case, or box, or instrument constructed for the purpose, it is capable of use. 

It was only after many attempts and failures that such use could be 
applied ; and this would be naturally expected to be the case. The exact 
principle involved in the use of Pul-glow has already been stated, but may 
be repeated. Ordinary light is the vibratory action of the Atomic rays upon 
the brain through the optic nerve, made to receive the action and transmit it 
to the brain, where it is interpreted. As a ray is composed of Atoms, it is 
consequently larger than the parts of which it consists, and could not be 
utilized in the analysis of its own elements, for the moment a single part 
was disclosed or separated, the ray would be destroyed. A ray of light, 
therefore, cannot discover a particle smaller than itself. Pul-glow is a faint 
light emitted from the point of an Atom ; is smaller than the particle ; and 
can be used in the study of larger things, as a ray of light is used to show 
the nature of cells. The Atom is larger than Pul-glow. 

It is either true or not true that the eye of man is designed to see not 
only the things of associate size with his common life, but also other things 
too small or too distant for its ordinary perception. The microscope was 



114 SOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FOUR. 



his legitimate right ; its limitations are marked by nothing more than the 
blur caused by the insufficiency of the light employed, and the activity of 
molecules. Invention can always seek new conquests. 

I shall hereafter fully explain all that I have done;, and the means by 
which every fact has been ascertained. I propose to do this not as aright due 
to my students, but in order that others may aid me in experiments which 
I am still making and hope to make. As far as the steps already taken are 
concerned, there is no obligation which urges me to disclose them to others, 
although I prefer to do so. It might be more politic to retain them in my 
own keeping ; and there are some practical reasons for doing so. In the 
first place very few persons could construct an instrument for confining the 
Pul-glow of the brain in a space suitable for use in connection with a 
powerful microscope ; but there are many ways of doing this, though no 
amount of description could supply the skill necessary for such construc- 
tion. Under the laws of patents, the inventor is entitled to the benefit of 
his own discovery, and no man has a right to ask it from him, except upon 
adequate compensation for his toil. What this may mean will be fully 
stated elsewhere. 

In the second place, the labor of one man in the line of investigation, 
is supposed to take the place of others' toil ; all need not go over the same 
ground, unless new results may be hoped for. In the third place, very few 
persons are willing to undergo the regime and course of life necessary for 
the development of an extraordinary degree of magnetism. I have made 
the subject a life study, covering an era of not less than twenty-five very 
active years ; and what may produce success in such case would result in 
failure in others. Any one at all familiar with human nature knows that 
failure produces discouragement and the abandonment of many great enter- 
prises in one's career. People are at first enthusiastic, then impatient, then 
ready to give up. It is the rare instance where one person will toil on 
through thousands of failures; while others will surrender after a few 
disappointments. 

But supposing the proper degree of magnetism and the necessary 
appliances are acquired, the extraordinary nature of the experiments will 
injure the eyes. I can testify to this in my own experience. 

For these reasons I could properly submit the principles which consti- 



BEGINNIMGS. 115 



tute tills philosophy, without reference to the processes whereby I have 
arrived at the remarkable results, were it not for the fact that I very much 
desire the co-operation of many distinguished persons who are pursuing 
these studies. There are yet new fields to enter, and life is short. 

QuESTiox. — Wliat are the probable difficulties in the way of applying 
Pul-glow to a poioerfal mieroscope ? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLIII. 

The Pul Meter. — This instrument is of various shapes, depending on 
the use to which it is to be put. It may be smaller large, and may measure 
the activity of a single particle, or the condition of a combination of particles. 

Protoplasm furnishes the most interesting study to the biologist ; but 
air and sunshine are more primary, the latter being the cause of life, and the 
most difficult to capture in a dark space. A thread-shaped receptacle from 
which the air has been exhausted is placed within a larger receiver from which 
also the air has been removed. Into the thread-shaped portion a very fine 
ray of sunlight is made to enter under the gaze of a powerful microcope 
lighted as before mentioned. The ray of sunshine consists of parallel lines 
of Atoms vibrating with moderate rapidity and moving forward slowly. 

This one fact of itself is of the most serious importance to human 
knowledge, and should be verified in the experience of others in order to be 
utilized in the sciences. 

It is evident that sunlight possesses three qualifications : first, it is 
vibratory, or mere undulating activity ; second, it enters into and becomes a 
part of other matter, by reason of an onward movement of its particles, which 
must be disposed of to make room for those which follows ; third, the 
millions of Atom-lines which occupy a small space have a combined influence 
which is of great importance in the existence of living matter. 

Question: Whence originates the ray of sunlight? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX CXLIV. 

Atoms. — An Atom originates in sunshine, by which it is transmitted 
from its source to all parts of the universe. Suns, therefore, are the next 
previous stage in the process of creation. 



116 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

All Atoms are of equal shape and size, and are ultimate indivisible 
particles of matter. The shape is of a bit of lead-pencil sharpened to two 
rather long points, perfectly round from point to point, and of longest diam- 
eter midway its length. An Atom of exact proportions may be had by taking 
a coin about the size of half a dollar in silver, (although the result is the 
same, if any size ring or coin is used) and drawing a circle with a pencil ; 
then placing the coin just over the edge of the circle, draw another which 
overlaps it slightly. Rub off the lines beyond those which overlap, and the 
result is a long narrow leaf -shaped diagram, larger in the middle and coming 
to two points. It should be four times as long as its greatest width. The 
actual size of the figure is immaterial, so long as the shape and proportions 
are shown. Another way is to cut about an inch from the end of a lead- 
pencil, and sharpen this inch length to two points carefully tapering to the 
middle. This is more accurate as it is of cubic dimensions. 

The matter of which the Atom is composed may be nothing more than 
mere laws; or it may be material substance. If mere laws, all the pheno- 
mena of attraction, repulsion, gravity, and the attributes of combination and 
constructive growth may be accounted for ; for a collection of energies in 
one particle may by accumulation produce even a solid mass, if we remem- 
ber that life is but a series of sensations. I do not know as yet what the 
fact is, but recent experiments lead me to the conclusion that the ultimate 
particle is a union of certain energies. 

Question : How can a solid rock contain nothing but an aggregation of 
energies, and have hardness and weight f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLV. 

Attributes of Atoms. — An active Atom, such as we see- in a ray of 
sunlight, revolves on its long axis. Hold the bit of lead pencil between the 
thumb and finger, and cause it to revolve by passing the finger of the other 
hand over the thickest part ; or by rolling it on the table. This energy of 
the Atom is revolution, or motion, and from the latter word we get the name 
MOT. 

One of the points of the Atom possesses certain powers of attraction, which 
are uniformly displayed under similar conditions. As the first law of all 



BEGINNINGS. 117 



growth is combination, and as combination could not take place except under 
the law of attraction, I assumed that this end of the Atom carried the energy 
which accounts for growth. I have called it GLAME, or vegetable vitality; 
and all subsequent experiments have born out the assumption. In factthere 
is not the slightest doubt that the GLAME end of the Atom is the source of 
all growth. 

The other point possesses the power of repulsion. From this kind of 
activity I concluded that, as repulsion is necessary in the selection of the 
proper particles for growth by the rejection of the improper ones, the repel- 
ling end of the Atom must be the seat and source of all intelligenee. This 
was assumed after experiments had confirmed the belief in a sort of mechani- 
cal way, and before the hale experiments were made. The latter confirmed 
the claim, and went many steps further. 

Thus we see that the ultimate indivisible particle, known as the Atom, 
contains three laws: MOT, or motion, which causes it to revolve ; GLAME, 
or attraction, which causes it to build and grow; and a certain guiding 
intelligence, in the nature of pulsion. The latter by repulsion gives the Atom 
a forward movement at the GLAME-end, which may be called propulsion, 
and is also capable of expelling certain enemies by expulsion. For these 
reasons I have called the intelligent end of the Atom PUL. 

Another way of summing up the Atom is to refer to it as having the 
powers of motion, vegetation, and mind. These three energies are essential 
to all existence of living things. 

Question. — How may the three attributes of the Atom account for all 
existence f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLYI. 

Peculiarities of MOT. — The laws of the Atom never vary. They 
are either present or absent. 

The revolution cannot be said to be always in one way, as that the 
earth turns from west to east and causes the sun to appear to move from 
east to west ; for the Atom is turned in every possible direction under the 
influences which are pulling it about. When a ray of sunshine goes out, it 
simply ceases to vibrate and move as a connected line ; the particles dance 



118 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

about until they become attached to their affinities, when they rest only so 
long as they are not disturbed by outside influences. Life is made up of 
counter influences, even to the days of man, and after his body has been 
deposited in the grave. 

The revolution of the particle is, therefore, in every conceivable direc- 
tion. It is greatest in the middle of the Atom, where the circumference is 
largest. At that place we call it MOT. GLAME has a strong desire to 
go to it, as we will see later on. 

Question. — Is the revolution of an Atom ever suspended; and if so, may 
it he resumed f 

For Essays on this subject, sec "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLVIL 

Peculiarities of GLAME. — This energy is full of interesting activ- 
ity, and has furnished many an hour of fascinating study. We will enumer- 
ate its earlier traits ; that is, its conduct when free to determine its action. 

It is a builder. Its chief function is attraction, and it knows no other 
law. Without it there could be no life, for all the universe would be a bed 
of sand. It unites with its fellows, forms molecules, and, by its greater 
energy, causes the molecules to unite and form greater life. 

All animal and vegetable growths are due to the vitality of the Atom, 
or its GLAME. There seems to be no provision made for animal life, and 
the question arises, does the latter differ from vegetation? We will see 
the process of growth a few pages hence. 

The law of cohesion is traceable to the attractive power of GLAME. 
This has long been known to science ; even in the time of Sir Isaac Newton 
it being stated that cohesion was the affinity of one molecule or Atom for 
another. Newton believed that Atoms had two poles, one a positive, the 
other a negative , the former attracting and the latter repelling. He thus 
conceived the very laws which we now know to exist, and hundreds of 
investigators have followed in most of his theories. For a man whose 
scientific knowledge was instinctive, or inspired, it is amazing how much 
light he gave the world that stands to-day unchallenged ; for the inspired 
thinker is apt to build conclusions beyond the warrant of his gifts. 

The law of gravity is easily explained by an examination of the nature 



BEGINNINGS. 119 



of Atomic-GLAME. While Newton discovered the law of gravity in its 
larger operation, he did not analyze the origin of this force. 

Leaving the description of these functions of GLAME to other parts 
of this workj let us watch the Atoms as they move under this attraction. 

In the first place, the GLAME end of an Atom seeks the MOT-part of 
any other Atom that it may reach. MOT may be said to attract GLAME, 
or the reverse is the same thing, that the latter seeks the former. 

In the second place, GLAME draws PUL to itself, the latter having 
no resisting power. This shows that intelligence must ally itself to vital- 
ity, in order to control even its own action ; and the story of the vegetable 
and animal kingdoms confirms this at every turn. 

In the third place, GLAME is inert in the presence of GLAME. 
Imagine two Atoms with the GLAME-ends toward each other : they each 
seek to approach the nearest place of attraction ; but, as both cannot go to 
the MOT-part of the other, one only will reach the middle of the other and 
become attached to it. If both were at equal advantage at the start, they 
would be neutralized, each by the other ; but this rarely ever occurs, and if 
it did the neighboring Atoms would soon adjust the difficulty. 

If Glame is in a position to go to either Mot or Pul, it will invariably 
seek the latter ; but if Mot is nearer it will go to that part of the Atom, 
and remain attached, even though both particles are constantly revolving. 
It prefers Pul, but stops at Mot ; and the adjustment of particles among 
themselves seems to indicate that growth is not normal except when Glame 
is attached to Mot. 

Question. — How does growth proceed f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLVIII. 

Peculiarities of Pul. — This is still more interesting than Glame; for 
we feel that we are in the presence of the simplest form of intelligence in 
the universe. 

Pul has many faculties, all traceable to the one law of repulsion. It 
seems to stand as a fine type of negative electricity, but it repels only itself. 
It is as though two intelligences, wishing to be left alone, avoid each other. 

Pul seems helpless when attached to Glame, but exercises an influence 



120 S03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

over the group. Imagine two Atoms free to go to each other: if the Pul- 
ends are facing, the two particles will retreat ; if they are in a straight line 
with each other they will go directly apart, and thus come under other 
influences ; but if they are slightly out of a straight line, the Glame-end of 
one will go to the Mot-part of the other, as soon as the Pul-edges commence 
to repel one another, and thus turn them partly around. This action is 
repulsion, as far as the Pul-ends are concerned ; it is propulsion, in the sense 
that the other parts are forced into an expression of their functions ; and it 
may amount to expulsion if an invading Atom is approaching to disturb an 
affinity already made. 

That this law is given it by some definite power there can be no doubt. 
It is folly to suppose that countless particles adrift in space, all uniform in 
size and provided with uniform functions, are given their laws by accident, | 
or have caught them from nothing. Existence is diverse in countless direc- 
tions, and complicated to a degree that presents a barrier to certain lines of 
investigation ; but when this diversity, from all its variations, is traced to 
one ultimate beginning, and that an unchanging unit possessed of fixed laws, 
the conclusion is absolute that some power behind the Atom has endowed it 
with intelligence, motion, and affinities. 

Question. — In what way could a higher powei' endow the Atom with 
laws f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXLIX. 

Sunshine. — Light, heat and sunshine are related, but not identical. 
Let us examine the latter. 

We have learned that sunshine consists of countless lines of Atom-rays, 
that the action of the sunlight is caused by a vibratory action of these rays, 
and that this action is moderately rapid, while the whole line moves forward. 
These various kinds of action may be traced to the simple laws of the Atom. 

Again have recourse to your scrap book, and draw a line of Atoms all 
attached to each other, with their Glame-end, toward the earth. For the 
Mot-part make a belt of two lines across the middle ; for the Glame-end 
make a straight line running from the belt to the point ; and for the Pul- 
end make a heavy dot near the point. These marks are merely for con- 
venience, as any others would do as well. They will enable you to see at a 



BEGINNJKGS. 121 



glance the position and influence of each Atom ; and this will prove inter- 
esting as their laws become familiar to you. 

It is beyond question that all these particles come from the sun, and 
are propelled to the earth, or through space, by the law of expulsion. This 
latter fact is proved by the position of all the original Atoms, or those which 
come to the earth in the form of sunshine ; they all have their Glame-ends 
away from the sun, and their Pul-ends toward it, — a uniformity of position 
that could not arise from accident. It is thus that these tiny particles tell 
us one chapter in the life of the sun itself. That they tell many chapters of 
celestial history will be shown in other pages. 

If you do not use your scrap-book freely you are not a careful student; 
and if you are careless in study, progress will be impossible. Make the 
Atoms as small as you can, and yet preserve their distinctness. If you have 
every Glame-end toward the earth, or in the same direction, you will find 
that the law of Glame attraction for Pul will prevail ; every Pul-end will 
be attracted to every Glame-end by the slight overlapping at the points, so 
that the lines will be almost like long thin rods. Your diagram will show 
this better that it can be written. 

At one end of this line is the sun, at the other the earth ; and the line 
has a length varying from ninety to ninety-five millions of miles. The repul- 
sion at the sun pushes that end of the line forward, but it does not move as 
a rigid rod. The Atoms nearest the sun are driven violently forward ; the 
force may or may not dislocate the line ; if it is dislocated, the particles will 
re-arrange themselves according their fixed laws ; if it is not broken, the 
agitation is very great, and continues along the line, diminishing perceptibly 
in force every million miles or so ; but being felt many millions away. , 

If undisturbed this vibratory action goes straight on, and an object 
directly in its track will be most affected by it. Thus we know that the 
vertical rays of the sun are hotter than those which strike slantwise; and 
for this reason summer is hotter than winter. 

The expulsion from the sun is in obedience to the law of repulsion seen 
in Atoms ; it also causes the vibration of the whole line, which is known to 
the sense of touch as heat ; and likewise gives a slight onward action to the 
whole length of particles. 

Question: What becomes of the Atoms f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



122 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

LESSON CL. 

Light. — Man is endowed with five senses, all nervous and all depend- 
ing upon vibratory action. It has been said that if there were no ears there 
would be no sound, if there were no nose there would be no fragrance, if 
there were no optic nerve there would be no light. 

Certainly the sunshine is not dependent upon the eyesight; its tremen- 
dous energy would be as great. A blind man is as apt to be sunstruck as one 
who can see. Light is an activity that is simply interpreted to the brain by 
the optic nerve. 

While sunshine is a vibration of Atomic rays extending from the sun ; 
light is a secondary vibration. To illustrate draw the figure of a block, say 
an inch square, and carry a series of Atomic- lines from the supposed position 
of the sun toward and beyond the block, which may be a house. The rays 
that strike the house are intercepted and destroyed, unless some of them 
enter. The rays that are not intercepted by the house pass on until they find 
some other obstacle ; or are lost in space. At the back of the house will be 
found a long shadow, which will seem black ; although it is very light in 
fact, except as it appears in contrast with the strong sunshine. 

In that shadow the finest print may be read and the smallest object seen, 
even as well as in the sun. Draw, back of the house, a series of Atomic- 
rays; and arrange them so that they may be seen to be branching in every 
possible direction from the direct rays of sunshine which pass the house 
unintercepted. The rays in the shadow will receive in lesser degree the 
vibratory action which is being maintained by the stronger lines. This is 
light. 

Anything that is capable or causing Atomic disturbance is light, if it is 
decided enough to affect the optic nerve. The candle does this, the fire in 
the grate, the ordinary forms of combustion, and more particularly the electric 
current that vibrates the carbon particles, and through these the Atoms that 
are as abundant in the lamp as if the air had not been removed, and which 
could not act so readily upon the Atoms if air were present. 

Question : How is it possible for light to pass through glass f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLI. 
Motion and Vibration. — The student must distinguish between motion 



BEGINNINGS. 123 



and vibration. The latter is an undulation that may be without the slightest 
movement of any part of the line ; and yet, by exciting the optic nerve, 
convey the sensation of light to the brain. 

Drop a pebble in the calm stream , a rippling movement will proceed 
in all directions, while no motion is given to the water. A chip on its sur- 
face would rise and fall with the undulation, yet remain in the same place. 
Motion as applied to the stream has not yet taken place , although the 
vibration has given an undulatory action to the chip and surface. 

A ray of sunshine need have no onward motion, and yet it could 
produce both heat and light by the activity of its undulations. Place the 
end of a wire at the ear (not in it) and let a person shake the other end ; no 
matter if the wire is a mile or more long the vibration will reach the ear 
and produce a sensation like that of singing. What the wire may be to the 
ear a ray of light may be to the optic nerve. 

Sunshine has both vibration and onward movement, the degree being 
more moderate than one would suppose. Light has no onward movement, 
and but a secondary vibration. It is therefore related to sunshine, but not 
identical with it. 

QuestiOjS^. — By what process does the optic nerve carry light to the brain f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLII. 

Fire. — Fire which produces light is a violent dissolution of combina- 
tions of Atoms, leaving them to the confusion of attempting to find their 
affinities and repel what may be in the way. 

Two Atoms could not produce fire, for one would soon settle its destiny 
as far as the other is concerned. Three Atoms might or might not ; but, to 
so large a being in the scale of life as man, they would be without effect. 
It would require many millions to produce the result called combustion. 
Imagine so great a number in conflict. The countless Pul-ends would repel 
each other and, if Glame were not present, the whole aggregation would be 
blown into space. While the repelling ends were active, the Glame-ends 
would seek Mot, or attract Pul ; and in this hopeless confusion the direst 
chaos would prevail. This is fire. It generally produces light. Atoms, 
whose combinations have been violently disturbed, dance about each other 



124 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FOUR. 

furiously in obedience to their three laws; but, sooner than we would 
expect, the agitation ceases, new molecules are formed and the conflagration 
ceases. It almost always follows that fire destroys the character of a 
substance, and the Atoms being set free seek the most convenient combina- 
tions. Thus a paper dollar bill, if burned completely, would lose its 
molecules, but its Atoms would not be destroyed. Being free, they would 
form new affinities, out of which other things would be constructed. A 
house burns down ; but the freed Atoms go into other combinations. 

A candle gives light ; its flame is a chaos of atoms caused by the rush 
of oxygen to the scene ; the chaos causes a vibration of the Atoms all 
through the room ; if a substance whose particles are easily disconnected, as 
paper or wood, be placed in the flame, the chaos will involve other Atoms 
beyond the flame, the newly disturbed Atoms will disturb those next by, and 
so on until the wood or paper begins to burn. Just as discord begets discord, 
so chaos begets chaos, until the course is run, and the agitation has subsided. 

Sunlight is a more powerful vibration of Atoms than light, and less 
than a flame. By using mirrors to accumulate sunlight at a given point, or 
a lens to concentrate the rays, wood or paper may easily be set on fire ; 
showing a relation between sunshine, fire, light and heat. 

Question. — What is the residue of fire, known as ashes; and of what 
does it consist f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLIII. 

Heat. — That energy known as heat may be mere vibration of the mass; 
as when we place ovir hands near the stove to warm them, no part of the 
general structure of the flesh being affected. A greater degree of vibration 
may reach the molecules which compose the hand ; in which case the 
general structure is threatened, as when ice is melted, water is boiled, butter 
is melted, sugar is heated, food is cooked, or any similar process is under- 
taken. 

The greatest degree of heat occurs when molecules are separated each 
from the other, but not destroyed in their own structure. This is observed 
when the chemistry of any matter is affected, but not destroyed. Thus 
steam is rarefied water, and its chemistry is affected when it is heated 



BEGINNINGS. 125 



sufficiently to be separated into oxygen and hydrogen, the molecules remain- 
ing. This excessive heat occurs when ingredients are blended into a new 
structure by a rearrangement of their molecules. It may be chemical heat, 
or fire heat. When the composition of the ultimate molecules themselves is 
affected, and the Atoms let loose from the molecules, the agitation is called 
fire. A summary of these operations may be of value. Fire is a chaos of 
Atoms. Light is a vibration of Atoms caused by fire or by sunshine. 
Sunshine is a more intense form of light. Heat is of three degrees : first, 
that which imparts Atomic-vibration to a mass ; second, that which vibrates 
the molecules in the mass, with a danger of separation ; third, that which 
actually causes the molecules to give up their companionship and to leave 
the mass. When the molecules themselves disintegrate it is fire, no matter 
how the disintegration is caused. Heat, fire, light and sunshine are mere 
activity, or energy. In a general way heat is molecular activity, and the 
other three forces are Atomic. It is well to fix these facts in the mind, as 
they explain many other things in life. 

Question. — What is the mechanical energy of heat, and what use is 
made of it f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLIV. 

The Sunshine brings Atoms to the Earth. — Tiiis fact has been demon- 
strated many times, and the character of these strange visitors has been carefully 
noted. The onward movement of Atomic-lines, known as sunbeams or parts 
of sunbeams, is so moderate, and the bulk of a million Atoms so very small, 
that it would require ages to add materially to the size of the globe. Yet 
we are forced to the only conclusion possible, that the earth is growing 
larger. These Atoms are of two classes, but it is not necessary to give 
names to them. They will be referred to by the influences which they exert, 
and considerable space may be necessary in the future description of them. 
At present it is sufficient to say that the two general classes of stranger Atoms 
are of good and bad influence, the bad being slightly more energetic than 
the good. When we come to the consideration of DEVS and ANGS, or 
destroyers and builders in the bacteria world, we shall obtain proof of the 
purpose of the two classes of Atoms that are sent to us by the sun or suns 



126 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FOUR. 



from the realms of space. It will be seen that all Atoms of the more energetic 
type become DEVS, or destroyers ; while those of the milder type become 
ANGS, or builders. These facts prove conclusively that there are two influ- 
ences at work beyond this earth. 

Question. — Why should evil he allowed to come to mankind f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLV. 

Plan of Creation. — The Atom is the first division of creation. The 
stars and planets are regarded as of the same structure, elements and laws 
as our solar system. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, and with 
the knowledge of the analysis of light, the appearance of other orbs, and the 
structure of the sky, it is safe to assert that the entire universe is made upon 
one general plan. The nebular hypothesis has seemed the most reasonable 
to scientists. Without theory, let us get at the facts. The Atom as we see 
it is capable of entering into a chaotic condition in combination with its 
neighbors ; and this agitation causes it to leave the place of disturbance 
whenever it is free to do so. S>ome 'preceding cause is necessary to cause fire. 
The earth cannot originate any chaos sufficient to impel Atoms from itself. 
Reflected beams have a vibratory only, and never an onward, activity. A 
sun is essential to the creation of a planet. 

Question. — What is the origin of a sun f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLVI. 
The Sun is Atomic Chaos. — The sun is not solid, not molten, nor 
gaseous. Gases are composed of molecules. There is not a molecule in the 
sun. All the Atoms there are endowed with the three laws, and the agita- 
tion is too great to permit any rest or cessation of the chaotic condition. In 
order to obtain this repose the Atoms are compelled to leave the sun and to 
find a resting place somewhere in space, where, owing to a decrease of agita- 
tion, they may unite into molecules, the molecules may form structures, and 
the architecture of the sky may be undertaken. Every sun, therefore, is 
Atomic chaos. Under the gaseous theory, it is supposed that all space was 
occupied with a gas ; or that all matter was so hot that it was rarefied and 
extended in space; from which condition it gradually became condensed, and 



BEGINNINGS. 127 



solids were found in the shape of globules, the sun being the largest globule 
and the last to cool. A claim has been repeatedly made that the first 
drop to cool became a sun ; which, being molten matter, threw off great 
drops into space and thus made planets. It is supposed that these drops 
were thrown off by centrifugal force during the revolution of the sun ; but 
the sun has no revolution. The planets, too, have ejected drops of themselves 
and formed a few moons. This theory is open to many objections. 

The sun has no revolution and could not have thrown off drops by the 
principle of centrifugal force. It has never yet reached a molten condition, 
as all observers agree, and "drops" could not have been formed. Planets 
could not throw off moons by the principle of centrifugal force, for the 
force is not sufficient ; and, if it were, all planets would have been reduced 
to a uniform size, or the process of throwing off moons have been continued 
on a more numerous scale. 

The sun is not in the same condition as the planets; nor is it possible to 
place the sun and a planet on a par with each other, either in energy, life, or 
character. The former is a source of energies ; the planets merely 
receivers of the powers given it. In other words every sun has given birth 
to the planets which compose its system, by a process of creation as elaborate 
as any pregnancy in nature. 

Question, — Why are the various theories of creation that have prevailed f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLVII. 
The sun is parent to the planets. — Having energies on a scale exclu- 
sively its own, and being a giver of forces, the sun must stand as the originator 
of its planets. The process that has been going on since the birth of the 
sun, is going on to-day ; and we will call it planet-building, with all that is 
implied in planet life. It consists of the expulsion of Atoms. Let us go 
back to the time when the sun was alone in its system. Atoms were sent 
forth into space in splendid profusion ; and their lines extended hundreds of 
millions of miles of radii through the sky. The first condition was that of 
the sun alone in its system ; the second was that of the sun in the center of 
millions of miles of Atomic sea, or what is best called iE, — a term that will 
be fully explained. In this condition the Atoms were free to combine. In 
a crowded arena the Atomic laws must have operated speedily. Nothing is 



128 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

more common to au Atom than to combine with another of its kind ; indeed, 
it is almost impossible to avoid combination. Molecules were formed freely 
in all parts of the sky ; and the third condition produced. Molecules have 
an attraction for each other that is readily asserted, and structure of masses 
began, leading the system into the fourth condition. The attraction of gravity 
produced the fifth and last condition. This is easily understood. The drifting, 
floating masses in the sky, no matter how small, came together by the opera- 
tion of gravity, and orbs began to appear. This fifth condition has never 
ceased. The large telescopes show us that these small masses are still in 
space ; and they are of every conceivable size from a large planetoid down 
to the smallest meteor. The sky is full of them. That the greater number 
of larger ones have " settled down " is probable ; but the smaller ones are 
constantly drifting to the planets. Thousands of meteors come to this earth 
annually ; and, in conjunction with Atoms from sunshine, are slowly, imper- 
ceptibly, but certainly adding to the size of our globe. Revolution, the law 
of the Atom is not the law of the sun itself; if it is communicated to a planet 
it must originate in the particles from which the planet is builded ; and such 
is the case. The earth and planets revolve. The laws that hold a satellite 
in its orbit are simple and well understood. 

Question. — What laws hold the -planets in their orbits around the sun, 
and how do these laws operate f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLYIII. 

Growth. — There are several distinct steps in the process of growth : 

1. Atoms. 2. Molecules. 3. Structure. 4. DEVS and ANGS. 5. 
Vegetation. 6. Animal Life. These may be mechanical or vital. 

Mechanical growth begins with Atoms; they come together as molecules; 
the molecules form masses, called structure; and here all growth ceases. It 
may be stated then that mechanical growth consists of three steps. The 
elements enumerated in chemistry are in this stage only; although the chemist 
pre-supposes his molecules. The really interesting steps in growth are seen 
in vital life, and are four, five or six in number ; having the full complement 
in the last. Of Atoms we have treated ; but we will give the definitions. 

1. An Atom is a single ultimate indivisible particle of matter. 



BEGINXIXGS. 129 



2. A 3Iolecule is a combination of two or more Atoms. Although two 
particles will make a molecule, the latter generally consists of a large number 
of these units. 

3. A Structure is a definite agreed and pre-understood union of molecules 
tending to a fixed shape and character. 

4. DEVS and ANGS are vegetable combinations of structures, appear- 
ing: as cells. 

5. Vegetation is cell-multiplication. 

6. Animal Life is a higher form of vegetation, being separated by well 
known laws. 

Each of these six steps is the necessary precursor of the next. Atoms are 
essential to molecules ; molecules ase essential to structures ; structures are 
essential to DEVS and AXGS ; their cells must precede vegetation ; and the 
latter is the only means of existence known to animal life. It is but a 
succession of larger development. 

Question. — Hoiv does animal life differ from vegetation f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLIX. 

All Life May Come From Atoms. — Chemistry tells us that there 
are about sixty elements, of which all matter is composed, and from which 
all structures are made. A chemical element corresponds to our molecule. 
It is a noticeable fact that recent experiments have led chemists to reduce the 
number of elements. Of the seventy or more which were recognized some 
vears ago, more than ten were discarded before the present generation. The 
reason for this reduction in the number of chemical elements is stated to be, 
that what were once supposed to be elements are now known to be combina- 
tions of others. Chemistry admits that its elements are molecules, and are 
therefore composed of particles. This conclusion was accepted before the 
discovery of Atoms was made, and is well confirmed. The great problem 
of science related to the question, whether the particles which united to 
make the elements or molecules were of various kinds. In answer to this 
important query, let us think of the purposes of creation, and the necessi- 
ties arising. Man is the ultimate pet of earth, or else general life is the 
only aim of the Creator. To bring about either of these ends, complicated 
9 



130 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPSY—TOME FOUR. 

existence and complex structure are necessary. These are found every- 
where. In tracing backward as far as science has been accustomed to look, 
we find a general tendency toward simplicity, though not decided until we 
come to the cell. Reasoning still further in the same direction, the investi- 
gator has concluded that the composite particles must be very much simpler. 
It is either true that an assortment of kinds, natures, or energies are to be 
found among the Atoms ; or else one kind of Atom has, by its power of com- 
bination, constituted about sixty well-known molecules, which are known as 
chemical elements by reason of the regularity of their habits. Which is 
true ? 

Question. — Wkat are the now recognized Ghemical elements, and what 
are their attributes f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLX. 

Original Variation. — As original variation is not necessary, it may be 
asserted that it does not exist. We know the fact to be that all Atoms are 
uniform in size and shape. The laws of Pul, Glame and Mot may not all 
be present in one Atom ; but that does not establish variation. Each law, 
when present, is uniform in its action. Is it possible for gold to come from 
the same Atoms as water? We know that the molecules of one are quite 
different from those of another ; but need the particles which constitute the 
different molecules be themselves different ? Our knowledge of the weight, 
color, shape, and quality of a substance must come to us by one of the five 
senses ; these senses are affected or excited only by some kind of action 
operating against the nerves which constitute the sense ; and gold merely 
excites them in one way, while water does the same thing in another. Thus 
cream may become heavy butter, or very light frothy cream, according as 
its structures are combined. It would be no more surprising to find that 
gold and water, or all the forms of earth, are made from the same original 
particles, held together in different Av.ays. 

Question. — Hoio does gold differ from water in its chemical units f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXI. 
First Molecules. — Take your pencil and draw an Atom in your scrap 
book. To this Atom attach a second at the end, the Pul being held to the 



BEGINNINGS. 131 



Olame. This is not a molecule, but a straight line. It is light or sunshine 
when it is made to vibrate by a pushing energy behind it; otherwise it is a 
line of 2E, or the ether which pervades all space between the orbs of heaven. 
The reason why it cannot be a molecule is because it does not form a unit or 
singleness of combination; but ou the other hand, is part of a continuous 
thread. Now make a triangle of three Atoms, each attached to the other 
at the ends by the laws of Pul and Glame. You have a most dangerous 
molecule, one that is all repulsion. Let a quantity of these be free in any 
place, and they would fly from each other; while, from the peculiarity of 
their combination, they could not be separated. It requires the most intense 
fire to break the triangular molecule, for no single Glame-end is strong 
enough to draw away any Pul-end when once attached. INIake a drawing of 
all the possibilities of attach from other Atoms, remembering that they are 
apt to be under the influence of others also. Next make a chain of tri- 
angles, one within the other. These come about by accident, and render the 
links very solid, suitable for the building of gold or other heavy metals. 
Squares, rings, and similar shapes should be drawn, and looped in the form 
of chains in about one figure in ten. Thus far you have very primitive 
combinations; the usual forms are exceedingly elaborate, and have cubic 
dimensions. 

QuESTiox. — How many varieties of simple molecules can you imagine f 
Send diagrams of them. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXII. 
Complex Molecules. — The Atoms come together in many ways; 
and, by reason of their peculiarly advantageous shape, are able to present 
beautiful and complete forms. They make themselves into a ball that seems 
perfectly round, into stars, into wheels, rods, spirals, and other shapes that 
seem to present a means of strength. Behind their molecular combining 
there is the ever present exhibition of an intelligent purpose; from this there 
is no escape. Indeed, I am quite sure that the single Atom has mind, if it 
has a Pul-end. A Pul-less Atom is chiefly a non-vital substance, like a 
mineral. There are certain fixed shapes which these particles take, and 
adhere to with a mental tenacity; though if one Atom is dislodged it may 
become part of another molecule of an entirely difi^erent nature. The separa- 



132 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

tion of their existence from the condition common to all, does not occur 
until the molecule is formed. Then their intelligence is increased many 
fold. They seem to agree upon a certain line of action peculiar only to the 
powers of the aggregation which has been established ; and from this purpose 
they never turn. It is the superiority of mind over matter. 

Question. — What complex molecular shapes can you suggest f 

For Essays on this sulDJect, see " Eules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXIII. 
Molecular Intelligence. — Whether we call it mind, feeling, conscious- 
ness, or other name, the little cell is full of purpose and intelligence. It knows 
volumes for so small a creature. Back of the cell are the molecules that 
compose it. We must assume that purpose and consciousness are given to 
the cell just as it becomes a cell, or that these attributes existed in the 
molecules before they combined to make the cell. The latter is true from 
all sides of view. It is the intelligence of the cell that urges it onward to a 
supreme end ; it is the intelligence of the molecule that impelled it to form 
the cell ; it is the individual intelligence of the Atom that compelled it to 
enter into a combination to make the molecule ; and back of the Atom is the 
Supreme Intelligence that endowed it with its laws. If we take intelligence 
out of primitive matter, we must close our eyes to every act and fact in 
nature ; and if we preclude a Supreme Power, we are not inheritors of that 
first attribute of simple life. A most beautiful exhibition of this intelligence 
is the unity of agreement among the particles as soon as they form the mole- 
cule. They are contented and peaceful among themselves, while united in 
the aggregate of a common purpose. They never fight or seek to undermine 
the government under which they exist. When two or more similar 
molecules are formed they seek each other. Why is this ? Is there a law of 
attraction which operates to bring like near to like? I believe it to be an 
exercise of intelligence. We see this in even large masses of water, which 
to us are fractions of a drop. If hopelessly apart they remain so, except as 
they become united by evaporation ; but let one fraction touch another, and 
they embrace at once, the whole becoming a single drop. This explains the 
law of cohesion, and is well understood to do so. 

Question. — What is the result of molecular affinity f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



BEGIXNIXGS. 133 



LESSON CLXIV. 

Cohesion. — Take a lump of loaf sugar. The mass is composed of 
molecules of various kinds, suited to its combination. Crush this to powder; 
the molecules still are held together, though in many masses much smaller in 
size. Place them together ; the sugar is now powdered ; the molecules are not 
free to act on the entire quantity, though holding together in smaller masses. 
Heat will set the molecules free ; they will then obey their own laws ; the 
whole quantity is united by molecular attraction, and many form one com- 
pact lump of sugary substance. Add other molecules, and the result may 
be a more adhesive lump as of flexible candy. Subject to a greater heat 
and remove before the water is lost ; a brittle candy is formed. The heat 
permits the molecules more or less freedom to seek each other, and the result 
is affected by it. If molecules are so heated as to set them free without 
destroying their own structure, (and thereby reducing them to Atoms), they 
will come together in that condition which most suits their shape. Compactly 
built molecules are heavy in themselves, but may be angular in shape and 
make a weak mass, as in the case of some kinds of rock. If their shape is 
such that they may interlock as they unite, they will be very strong and hard 
to separate, as in the case of a diamond. Cohesion is perfectly explained by 
the law of attraction in Atoms, the ends being so exposed that they may form 
the affinities in molecules which they hold as particles ; but the selection of 
molecules for like molecules is explained only under the law of intelligence, 
which is also an Atomic law. 

Question. — How is it that chemical compounds are composed of different 
molecules which hold together in masses f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXV. 

Capillary Attraction. — Take a lump of loaf sugar, and place one edge 
of it on water. The latter will climb up the sugar and saturate the entire 
mass. Why is this? Why should not water obey the law of gravity and 
refuse to rise ? In the lump of sugar are many small spaces, lined with 
molecules for which water has an affinity. The molecules of water, having 
more freedom to move, seek the others and proceed to ascend the lump. I 
know that there are several theories which are used to account for the 



134 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

phenomenon of capillary attraction; but I am satisfied that it is due solely to 
molecular attraction. 

Question. — What are the various kinds of capillary attraction f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXVI. 

Gravity. — Nothing has been more difficult to understand than the action 
of gravity. It puzzled the minds of men, until the discovery that the earth 
was round compelled men to seek a law that might explain it. The wisest 
men of the time of Columbus argued that if the earth was round, the water 
would flow off, and men on the other side must fall into space, or else walk 
upside down. The fact makes a phenomenon acceptable ; so time went 
on, until Newton discovered the so-called law of gravity. In consider- 
ing this, let us keep in mind that the absence of gravity would mean much 
more than we imagine. We must also remember that so destructive a prin- 
ciple would be an effectual bar to growth, union or existence. As intelligence 
is the basis of all matter, it could be trusted to originate the law of attrac- 
tion ; after which cohesion and gravity are easily explained. 

Question. — What is gravity f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXVII. 

Intelligence the Primary Law. — As nothing is furnished in Nature, 
except under the demands of necessity, it is safe to conclude that the three 
laws of the Atom may be reduced to one, and that intelligence. If intelli- 
gence is the cause of each step in growth, and gives to a mass its supreme 
purpose of building life, why could it not give to the Atom its law of 
revolution, and its law of Glame or attraction ? What the fact is we need 
not discuss at this place ; and, whether we conclude that the other two laws 
are originated by intelligence (Pul) or not, the cause of investigation is neither 
aided nor hindered. 

Question. — What is your theory f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXVIII. 
The Absence of Gravity. — Supposing the law of gravity to not exist^ 
what would be the result ! In the first place we must discard all idea of 
attraction ; for minute affinities could not operate without affecting the 



BEGINNINGS. 135 



mass ; and, as soon as the mass is affected, gravity is established. But let 
us imagine that the mass is constructed while yet no gravity exists. We 
lift a chair from the floor; it remains in the air. We set it against the wall; 
it stays there. We throw a bucket of water into the air ; it will be found 
there ten years hence, not even being able to evaporate. Evaporation is an 
exercise of the law of gravity, the air falling lower than the rarefied vapor, 
causing the latter to rise. We read a newspaper and place it before us 
without a table ; no shelves are needed, for books, papers, and things in 
general will stay where they are placed. We may hang our clothing on the 
atmosphere, place our collars, cuffs, shoes, hats, and multitudinous details in 
any altitude of the room we may please, and always find them at a glance. 
Our dinner need not be served on a table, nor even on plates, for a slice of 
bread may rest on nothing in front of us, the butter float near by, the 
knives, forks, spoons, meats, gravies, and desserts lie at hand ; although a 
mechanical operation would be necessary to get the sauce on the pudding, for 
it would not fall if we tried to pour it. If we try to walk we must be 
careful, for the least spring upward would leave us in the air ; nor could we 
get down again very easily. A friend who tried to pull us down would pull 
himself half way up, and both would be suspended in the air, longing for 
earth. And at night when we lie down to sleep, we may rest on a bed of 
air with no drafts about us, for without gravity the wind could not blow. 

QuESTiox. — Mhat kind of growth can you imagine in the absence of 
gravity ? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXIX. 

Orbital Revolution. — Two bodies in space, free from all influences of 
attraction, except their own, would come together in time, no matter how 
far away they might be at first. The coming together may not result in a 
collision, for the intelligence which rules the universe would establish a law 
which would hold the two bodies together by the attraction of orbital revo- 
lution. Thus the earth is held to the sun by attraction, but is prevented 
from rushing directly toward it by the law of orbital revolution. This law 
is supposed by many scientists to operate among particles or units of matter ; 
the claim being that, as the heavenly bodies exist under this law, so must 



136 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOWIE FOUR. 

the Atoms be grouped into stars, planets, and satellites. Such is not the case 
as I know by personal observation. 

Question. — What exact operation of this law holds the earth from the 
sunf 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXX. 

Operation of Gravity. — Two free Atoms left to themselves would 
come together ; two apples suspended in space would come together ; two 
rocks in the air come slightly toward each other in the act of falling. No 
matter how far apart two Atoms may be they can feel the power of attrac- 
tion. If two particles can so distinctly feel this energy, more than two can 
certainly do so. Molecules come toward each other, by the same law of 
attraction which is multiplied by the increase in the number of Atoms, each 
armed with the same tendency. As the combinations increase the energy 
becomes greater, and gravity must result. As would seem the only rational 
conclusion, the attraction is greatest when the objects are near each other; 
the power decreasing as the distance increases. The momentum and acquired 
speed must be added to the energy of attraction, causing a rapid increase of 
progress. Objects free to adjust their position with relation to each other, 
will obey the law of gravity according to their respective weight. Thus 
iron will sink in water, water will sink in oil, oil will sink in air, and air 
will sink in some of the gases. 

Question. — Are the heavier substances of the earth farthest from the 
surface f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXL 
Gas. — It has been said in a general way that the molecules of a mass, 
approach each other under the law of their affinity ; but, in the case of the 
triangular Atoms, the rule seems to be reversed. On examining the facts, 
we find that the Glame-ends had attracted the Pul-ends and thus temporarily 
exhausted their power of attraction. The Pul-ends, being still vigorous, 
were exposed. If the triangular molecules approached each other under any 
affinity, the exposed Pul-ends would cause a separation. This is called 
a gaseous action. A gas is any condition wherein the molecules are so 
arranged that their Pul-ends are exposed to each other; or more Pul-ends 



BEGIKNIA'^GS. 137 



than Glame-ends are outward in the molecule. The intensity of the gas 
must depend on the number of such exposed ends. Gases being generally 
lighter than air for their bulk would naturally rise. They are necessary to 
the intermingling of matter so as to promote growth. 

QuESTiox. — How Diany gases are there, and what are their properties f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXII. 

Ice. — Heat applied to water is merely molecular activity causing a 
restlessness of the mass and rendering the separation of its parts possible. 
Such activity must be imparted from molecular or Atomic classes ; or in 
other words, it takes heat to make heat. Water is interesting to study, for 
it is composed of molecules whose Atoms have neutralized ends; that is, 
each molecule is so constructed that nearly an equal number of Pul-ends 
and Glame-ends are outward, thus causing the mass to be almost free to 
separate in small quantities, and permitting it to do so in quantities larger 
than drops. For this reason water has no cohesion in the latter case. Heat 
is never absent from water, not even in the coldest ice we ever handled. It 
is present in the form of activity, showing that moving Atoms are constantly 
at work in its mass. At the freezing point this activity known as heat, is 
so far lessened that the slight cohesive power which results from the little 
advantage arising from the small super-number of exposed Glame-ends, is 
allowed to bring the molecules together, changing the water to ice. Ice 
is, then, merely the cohesion of water. 

Question. — Why is ice transparent, or translucent f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXIII. 

Steam. — Reversing the process we find that water is a very unstable 
mass, owing to the easy manner in which its slight cohesion may be over- 
come. The more heat is applied the more the particles fly from each other ; 
first as vapor, mist or fog ; then as steam. In the latter case the heat 
becomes so active that a number of the water molecules are destroyed ; the 
Pul-ends already exposed are reinforced by the reversal of the adjoining 
Atoms; triangular molecules are formed and the mass seperates into all man- 
ner of parts remaining under the strain, while the activity is maintained. 

QuESTiox. — Are any water molecules lostf 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



138 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

LESSON CLXXIV. 

Explosions. — Any mass that is so constituted that its molecules may 
be reduced to a triangular shape will explode. The substance may be solid, 
dry, damp, or wet. The energy of an explosion depends upon the number 
of Pul-ends which are made to face and repel each other. 

Question. — How many explosives are there, what are they, and what are 
their properties f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXV. 
Interior of the Earth. — The earth originated by the union of small 
masses, to which constant addition is always being made, and will be until 
the sun goes out. These masses were at first solid, that is the interior was 
not hallow. The question arises, is the earth now solid or hollow? The 
theories of scientists lean both ways, the prevailing idea being that it is in a 
molten condition within. Let us examine it. When masses first united they 
may have been either molten or solid, and in any event the solid parts were 
heated. As more masses joined the growing orb, the collision must have 
caused intense heat. Thus this globe grew by addition of part to part, 
almost as all things grow. During its chief period of formation the whole 
mass was in a state of constant unrest, every part being free to do as it 
chose. It is more than probable that, when the size had increased, the law 
of attraction operated on the entirety for the economy of position. Free 
matter, obeying the law of attraction, must seek a center from all directions ; 
on this principle globules are formed. But another law comes in : particles 
are most strongly attracted when the mass is greater. If any object is free 
to go to a small or large orb, it will seek the latter; the energy of the former 
increasing the speed of movement. In the interior of a large globe the 
central mass is without influence on the outer or surrounding portion; but is 
influenced by the superior weight of the latter. The center of gravity of a 
a large globe is not the center of the globe itself. For the core the center 
of gravity would be half way between itself and the circumference. It is 
probable that particles would, unless forced to the interior, seek to ally them- 
selves with those nearest the outer crust, or to the place of heaviest mass. If 
this is so, the earth is a mere shell, having a hollow the diameter of which is 
seven-eighths the diameter of the entire earth. The inner surface of this 



BEGINNINGS 139 



crust would be red hot, having had no opportunity to cool. Under the law 
of attraction of matter, if the earth contracted in cooling at the surface, 
molten lava would be forced outward through openings, as of volcanoes ; and 
on the line between the cool and the hot there would be smoke, cinders and 
ashes. 

Question. — If such is the condition of the earth, what is the thickness of 
the shell f 

For Essaj-s on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXVI. 

Cold. — We know that heat is activity, or the unrest of matter. But 
we see that the tendency is to come to a rest. This approach to stillness is 
called cold. Absolute cold does not exist anywhere in the universe, unless 
space is devoid of Atoms ; for where Atoms are there is activity. From 
these little messengers we get many lessons of life. Action is living. The 
lazy man has no place in the economy of Nature. The body requires that 
constant activity be maintained in all its masses, or death ensues by reason 
of mere rest. We may call it a chill if the temperature drops below about 
98 degrees ; or being frozen to death, if it drops to 32 degrees. It is 
certain that life cannot exist below the nineties. We feel cold if our body 
loses even one degree of heat, although it may live in a surrounding 
temperature of forty below zero, if it is active. The most remarkable fact 
in this connection is the uniformity of heat maintained by the blood in sum- 
mer and winter ; it never varying from about 08 degrees, if in health. 
Cold is a relative term, referring merely to a reduced quantity of heat ; not 
the absence of heat, as the school books put it, for we cannot find such a 
condition. 

Question. — \VJiat becomes of escaping heat f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXVII. 
Vegetation. — We have seen that there are six steps in the progress of 
growth : Atoms, Molecules, Structure, DEVS and ANGS, Vegetation, and 
Animal life. Every one of these steps is a species of life. There is no 
dead matter except Pul-less Atoms. The first associate life is that of vege- 
tation. It is companion to man, and the only vital companion of animal 
creation. Not only is this true, but a greater fact appears : all animal life 



140 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

is dependent upon, and is composed of, Vegetation. Kemove the latter from 
the earth, and what would man feed upon ? Why meat, fish, and fowl, of 
course. Fish live upon other fish, and these upon vegetation. Fowl live 
upon animal life that feeds upon vegetation. The ox does not eat meat, and 
meat-eating animals would die for lack of food if the vegetable kingdom 
became extinct. 

Question. — What is the longest succession of animals that you can 
mention that feed upon meatf By that we mean animals that feed upon 
other animal life, and so on. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXYIII. 

Man's Food. — Man himself is a vegetable in the sense that his body 
is composed of vegetable protoplasm. He eats meat, and his stomach is 
adapted for both kinds of food. He craves meat more decidedly than vege- 
table food. Being adapted to it, craving it, and having a long ancestry of 
example in favor of it, there seems no reason why he should not have it. 
He should eat meat if it serves the purpose for which food is used. The 
only question is, whether vegetable food would be more beneficial, or make 
him a better man ? 

Question, — What would he the effect if man were to live wholly upon 
Tneat f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXIX. 

Meat-eating Animals. — A dog lives upon meat if he can get it ; so 
does a cat. Neither of them are fit for the food of man ; nor is any flesh 
that has fed upon flesh. I have fed pigs upon flesh, and find their own 
flesh almost alive with bacteria. It is understood by all mankind that flesh- 
eating animals are unfit for food, that they are disease-creating, taint and 
rot more readily, and destroy life in a short time. This being true, the 
question arises, what lesson this teaches ? 

Question, — What is trichinosis, and how does it originate f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXX, 
Origin of the Meat-habit. — If meat taken from an animal which has 
lived upon meat is unfit for food, then the eating of flesh is a step half way 



BEGINNINGS. 141 



between good and bad food. It is not, however, to be inferred that because 
this is so, meat is not proper food. We hold that it is, and often necessary 
to give strength where grains are not relished. Man, in his savage state, 
did not cultivate the grains ; he must, therefore, have depended upon birds, 
fish and fowl, all animal food. His present body bears evidence of his 
flesh-eating propensities, especially his canine teeth, which are known to have 
been much longer in his early history. His emancipation from barbarism 
has been attended by a steady departure from a wholly meat-diet. If this 
is true, the nobler man is a child of direct vegetation. 

Question. — What do you know of pre-historic man f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXXI. 

Comparison of Food. — I have devoted many years to the examination 
of the problem whether meat should be discarded or not ; and have had the 
benefit of thousands of reports from men and women who have aided me to 
get at the facts, rather than to support a theory. I knew that the gentle 
animals ate only vegetable food ; but it is not safe to compare animals to 
man, or to look to the former for example. They follow an instinct ; are 
short lived ; and many of them supply man with food. As soon as a person 
who is accustomed to meat, turns vegetarian, he is apt to become sick. 
He forgets two things ; first, that his ancestors were meat-eaters, causing 
him to have a stomach for it ; second, that meat contains elements which are 
ready for his body, which he will not know how to obtain at once in grains. 
For example, let him abandon his regular diet, and take the vegetables and 
bread ; he will have neuralgia of the most distressing kind ; or the food he 
needs will not be present in his new selection. Meat is ready-made food, 
containing all the elements required by the brain, nerves, muscles, and 
general body ; the grains are natural food, suited to our life only when a 
proper selection is made. 

Question. — What grains are an equivalent to meat f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXXII. 
Decay. — Bacteria and disease-germs have an affinity for meat and not 
for vegetation. There may be several reasons for this ; but, as the duty of 
bacteria is in part to destroy and remove matter not fit to remain, their ready 



142 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

attack on flesh is noteworthy. It is true that their eagerness for it, causes 
putrefaction. While fresh vegetation may decay, the grains do not. Meat 
readily taints and putrefies. If you cut or scratch the skin so that blood is 
exposed, one or more species of bacteria, which infest the air, will quickly 
seek it. If the exposure is slight the vigor of the tissues may expel the 
invaders; but if a large cut is made the chances are strong that blood- 
poisoning will set in. Instead of a large opening let the tiniest scratch be 
exposed to meat that is ever so little tainted, — meat is often tainted when 
we deem it fresh, — and bacteria will leave the old for the new. A sore will 
follow; abscesses may form ; and evidences of a most virulent type of small 
life will be present. They are taken in the blood and soon destroy it. Many 
a surgeon has lost his life by a slight cut or scratch, during the dissection of 
a human body. 

Question. — What causes decay in vegetation f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXXIII. 

Savage Food. — Man's flesh is most dangerous to the surgeon, and is 
most easily a pray to bacteria. In following out lines of inquiry I find that^ 
not only is this true, but also that meat-eating people are most subject to 
contagious and putrefective disease. Exceptions may be found to every 
rule; in the case of vegetarians, good health does noij always follow; but 
ninety-nine per cent of those who die of cancers, consumption, diphtheria, 
small pox, and contagious diseases, are meat eaters. All infectious diseases are 
caused by the destruction of the body through the presence of bacteria, or 
meat-eating germs. If man were wise enough to know how to select and 
combine the grains so as to prepare a food the equal of meat, which is possi- 
ble and simple to do, he would rarely ever die of an infectious disease. 
Until he can obtain this knowledge, meat must remain his food. It was 
undoubtedly the gift of nature during the period of liis savage existence ; 
it is to-day the necessary food of ignorant people, and low forms of animal 
life. 

Question. — What evidences are there that the ancestry of civilized man 
was barbarous f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



BEGINNINGS. 143 



LESSON CLXXXIV. 

Two Influences Behind Life. — A ray of sunshine, as we have stated 
before and shall repeat later on more fully, brings to the earth certain vital 
Atoms. Unmistakable evidence has been obtained to prove that vital life 
comes from the particles, that the seeds of intelligence, which pursue the 
course of growth until they create all species of living things, are contained 
in the sunbeams. While these Atoms are alike in size and fchape, and are 
operated by the same laws, their intelligence is of two species. This intelli- 
gence is called Pul, or purpose, and represents the purpose which is present 
in the particle itself. As such minute life cannot originate itself, there must 
be two influences at work in the universe, behind this earthly existence. It 
will be profitable in other pages to analyze and study the sunbeams. At 
this time our attention is required on a different line of investigation. 

Question. — How is if possible to trace the cause of so small a thing as 
an Atom f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj^s," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXXV. 

DEV-Atoms. — A few words, necessary to new ideas, have been coined 
for this work. DEV is one of them, and refers to any cells that are enemies 
to the life of man, as bacteria and their species. Such cells are constructed 
from evil Atoms, or particles having an evil purpose. In the venom of 
snakes these DEVS are most abundant. It is known that, in such a case as 
common hydrophobia, the bacteria themselves do not cause death ; but they 
emit a poison that permeates the entire system and the most horrible agony 
follows. This poison is called by some scientists, the breath of the bacteria. 
It is in fact true ; and this breath consists of original DEV-Atoms, which 
the bacteria have a faculty for absorbing in their systems until they are con- 
centrated, A DEV, then, is an evil germ, composed of structures from 
molecules which consist of DEV-Atoms. 

A DEV- Atom is a single particle of matter, of evil purpose, destined to 
find its way, if possible, into a DEV ; and into general life through the 
ordinary channels of growth, 

QuESTiox. — Is it possible to remove evil from the world f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



144 SOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME FOUR. 

LESSON CLXXXVI. 

Flesh DEVS. — Even if DEV-Atoms do not find their way into 
DEVS, they will follow a certain instinct which drives them to meat. A 
piece of flesh, exposed to the air, will draw from the sun or shadow the DEV- 
Atoms which are always lurking about. They are not merely forces or 
energies ; there is an ever asserted intelligence in their conduct. I cannot 
believe that they are blind forces, for accident could create nothing but 
accident. The positive exhibitions of intelligence displayed by these and 
other Atoms lead us to the conclusion that we stand in the presence of a 
power, not distant but at hand, which portends and intends more for us than 
the divinations of religion ever indicated. If there is a keen, active, urgent, 
energetic and unrelenting knowledge in and about us, crowding our every act 
to the consummation of some purpose for which we shall be held responsible, 
watching us at every step, looking into our brain and heart, noting each 
impulse, or measuring every design of good or evil, and clinging to each cell 
that constitutes a distinct life within us, we should know it, learn more of it, 
and adapt ourselves to such a moral and physical code as will enable us to 
abide by the good and avoid the evil. 

Question. — Wkat is the measure of intelligence possessed by an Atom? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXXVIL 

Vegetable ANGS. — There are destroyers and builders all about us; 
and wherever there is life there is contact with either one or the other. 
The microscope shows that bacteria consists of two classes, the destroyers and 
the builders. It was supposed for a long time that both classes were ani- 
malcule of a smaller kind, but a doubt arose, and the next claim was that 
the builders were vegetable, and the destroyers, animal. As microscopes 
improved, it was clearly seen that all bacteria Avere of the vegetable 
kingdom. 

Investigation has confirmed the theory that there must be good and bad 
protoplasm, good and bad cells, good and bad bacteria : the good being de- 
signed to build life, the bad to destroy it. Even bacteria is necessary to 
the existence of man ; but, like the great world itself, there are all classes ; 
the good aiding each other to build up, at the same time carrying on a war- 
fare with the bad ; the latter working separately to destroy. From this 



BEGINXIXGS. 145 



comes the lesson that all good people should unite; for all the bad cannot. 
If there is lack of union among the good, the progress of a better hope for 
the race will be delayed, or possibly destroyed. We come to the interesting 
scientific fact that there are good cells, good Atoms, and good bacteria. 
The latter we call ANGS. They are only of vegetable propensities. 
Question. — IFAy should DEV8 he present in the world? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXXVIir. 

Law of Growth. — It is true that all cells are of one tendency, namely 
vegetable. It is also true that DEVS and ANGS are cells, and that their 
next step is vegetation. This would argue, and almost prove, that good and 
bad life tend to vegetation, and thence to animal substance ; but the study 
of their habits under instruments which even children can use and under- 
stand, shows the importance of facts rather than theories. The law is this : 
DEVS and ANGS are both of the vegetable kingdom; ANGS are cells, 
which, by their own union, grow to plant life and flesh ; DEVS become 
flesh-eaters, and never actual flesh ; although they may dwell in flesh life 
as poisons. They have an affinity for flesh, seek it, associate with it, eat it, 
taint it, and abound in it. They destroy what ANGS build up. This is 
the whole basis of disease, the most striking example of which is deadly 
consumption. They seek with double energy the flesh of animals that have 
been fed on flesh. 

Question. — How did it come about that all civilized nations have 
discarded the flesh of all flesh-eating animals f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CLXXXIX. 

Influences of Food. — ANGS build up the body directly from vegeta- 
tion, and DEA^S invade it in the form of malignant diseases. All flesh is 
subject to their devastation. 

ANGS come to earth on missions of peace, gentleness, and good-will. 
They will not engage in the construction of venomous snakes, savage beasts, 
or fiend-like men. They carry with them a spirit of intelligence, which is a 
fixed purpose; and from this arises all the good there is in life. DEVS are 
equally intelligent. The principles of good and bad, existing under other 
names, have been recognized in all ages by men of wisdom. All scientists, 

10 



146 SOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FOUR. 

no matter how atheistical, or theistical they may be, have declared that a 
fixed, certain intelligence governs matter, as well as mind. These universally 
acknowledged facts should not be forgotten ; they play a vital part in our 
philosophy. We seek not only the truth, but also that truth which is sup- 
ported by universal evidence. If food itself consists of cell-life which is 
composed of intelligent forces having the power to exert influences both good 
and bad, the presumption is clear that we are influenced by what we eat. 
Question. — At what time in the life of the child is mind created? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXC. 

What We Are. — With a clear presumption in favor of the influence 
of food over body and mind, let us go further and examine the facts. I have 
evidence sufiicient to fill volumes to prove that the nature of the food we eat 
makes us what we are. I will go still further and assert that body, mind 
and soul are created from, and part of, the food we eat. I do this unre- 
servedly. Before these Tomes are concluded I will offer such evidence as 
cannot be disputed and as will leave not the shadow of a doubt as to the 
great facts. 

Question. — Is not this daim in accordance with Theology f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCI. 

Mind and Matter. — We all know that the body is constructed from 
the food we eat. Mind, as we shall see it again, is but the collective intelli- 
gence that comes from lesser life. Man may be roughly compared to an 
Atom ; his head is the Pul-end ; his legs the Glame-end ; his vital centre, 
the torso, is the Mot part. His legs carry him to an object, under the 
direction of either Mot orPul, but by the superiority of the latter when free 
to be exercised. It is not true that the mind of man is always superior to 
his body. He is the creature of his bodily wants. 

Question. — In what respects does the mind yield to the body? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCII. 
Mind in Food. — Permit me to choose your food, and I will make you 
an idiot. Give a man white-bread for six months, and he will become in- 
sane, provided the flour is the finest and whitest in the market, and no other 



BEGINNINGS. 147 



food is taken. Feed your children on buckwheat cakes, pan cakes, white 
bread, sweets and tea or coffee; then send them to school; and I will 
guarantee that they will be at the foot of their classes, have headaches, 
neuralgia, dyspepsia in time, and be stupid generally. Feed people ex- 
clusively on rice or similar food; they will sleep long and often, think but 
little, and sigh for opium, tobacco, or narcotics. 

These things are not occasional happenings, nor are they accidents. 
They represent a great fact : mind is in the food we eat. The mental clear- 
ness and every responsibility of a man depends on the quantity of phosphatic 
foods he may eat. Between that perfect proportion of proper foods from 
which all functions arise, and that gross inadequacy of nutrition which 
destroys the balance that adjusts our natures, is the long road known as the 
gradation of degrees of insanity. 

Question. — What is insanity f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCIII. 

Soul and Matter. — In these brief lessons we cannot elaborate all the 
facts stated. So important a study as the Soul must be reserved for other 
portions of this work. At this place it is well to lay down some of the 
fundamental principles on which rests the main structure of our philosophy. 
In doing so briefly, we feel sure that all reasonable students will await the 
production of the substantial proofs which must be furnished before any fact 
can be said to be well-established. We know that, as far as this life is 
concerned, the soul is co-extensive with the body. Religious teachings show 
this; nor is it otherwise than consistent with their views to assert that the 
breath of life comes from the food we eat. 

Question. — In how many ways is it possible for the soul to be imparted 
to the body f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCIV. 
The Disposition. — So closely allied to the food we eat is the nature 
of every function of the body, that even our moods, passions, feelings, long- 
ings and aspirations depend upon the same source. We know that meat will 
make a dog ugly and a cat savage, even though the same chemical elements 
might have been easily obtained from grains. A man fed upon too great a 



148 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 



proportion of meat drifts to a beastly disposition. The effects of grain 
eating, if the equivalents of the body are selected, is to calm the nerves, 
subdue the passions, reduce the criminal tendency of the thoughts, and make 
gentle a stormy disposition. 

Question. — Whence arises the human disposition? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCV. 

Crime in General. — From experiments that were started a quarter of 
a century ago, I have sufficient data already to prove in hundreds of cases, 
that, while the criminal tendency originates in previous generations, it is 
aggravated by meat food, by lack of a proper balance of nutrition, and by 
the heat of the blood affecting the brain. 

Question. — How far is a person, under these circumstances, responsible 
for his crimes f 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCVI. 

Natural Crime. — By this is meant that evil of youth, which has 
blighted many noble lives. Under our advice, in connection with an organ- 
ized society, one hundred fathers tried the experiment of allowing their 
children no meat, until after the age of puberty. The proper equivalents 
were found in grains. No more conclusive proof of the influence of food 
over health, disposition, criminal acts and habits could be found. Without 
a single exception the children passed safely the trying period of their lives; 
nor do I believe there exists to-day, in any part of the world, such men and 
women in the aggregate as these people will become. There can be no 
doubt but that meat is a grossly improper diet for children. 

Question. — What foods in the vegetable kingdom are equivalents of meat 
in supplying the needs of the body f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCVII. 

Origin and Destiny. — On becoming convinced that good and had 
influences have taken possession of this fair earth ; that DEY- Atoms and 
ANG- Atoms come to us from the sun ; that they speedily organize them- 
selves into molecules and hasten to make structures, so as to enter upon the 
battle of life, each with the other as full-fledged DEVS and ANGS ; that 



BEGINNINGS. 149 



the intelligences of good and bad filled the brain, body, heart and soul of 
man in their unceasing warfare for supremacy; I resolved to study the 
source of these influences and their destiny. With untiring diligence, 
extending through hours of the night and day, for weeks, months and years, 
wearing out a most vigorous constitution, I have plodded on and on in these 
studies ; never forgeting that primitive life is in the Atom, and that it is 
to that volume we must turn for much of our knowledge. I have studied the 
Atoms of the sunshine until I am convinced that they are sent to us by a 
conflict of supreme powers. 

Question. — Is it possible to conceive two supreme beings ; if so in what 
way f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXC^VIII. 

Conflict of Supreme Powers. — I was taught by a good clergyman 
that there was no personal devil ; so I learned to believe that the satan of 
the Bible was a typical thing, and that hell was in our own hearts, not in 
the realms of the universe. It is pretty well settled to-day in modern 
religion that there is no hell, no devil, and no destruction in the hereafter. 
That this is a compromise between the direct statements of the inspired 
writings and the consciences of the present century, is too apparent for 
discussion. Is it warranted? 

The influence of this good teaching upon ray young mind was such 
that it required years to believe that the Atoms of the sunshine were com- 
posed of two classes. It seemed crude as well as cruel that evil should be 
in the world; and especially intelligent evil full of malignant purpose. 
Alas, the bright enthusiasm of a hopeful dreamer was doomed to face the 
stern facts of reality. 

Question. — What and where are the Biblical references to a devil? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXCIX. 

Duty. — Impelled by an awful realization of these new truths of life, I 
could not resist a duty. I was haunted night and day by the demand, from 
what source I know not, that these things should be proclaimed ; in times of 
labor, study and research a certain influence hurried me on, aided and cared 
for me, and made the task an easy one. To bury what I knew to be new 



150 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FOUR. 

knowledge seemed like placing a beautiful babe, full of life, beneath the 
sod. My chief hope is that another world in this may spring forth in the 
chaos of your life, and prove both beautiful and inviting ; opening the way 
to happiness because of its beauty, and affording a realm of employment for 
the faculties with which you are endowed. 
Question. — What duties await youf 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CC. 

Inspiration. — Much that comes to man is impelled by a power whose 
influence we shall discuss in another place. When complete possession is 
taken of his mind and heart by a supreme power, either of good or evil, we 
say that he is supernaturally inspired. Bad comes from a bad influence, and 
good only from a good influence. The product is the evidence of the source 
of a thought. There is a kind of inspiration which foret-ells or foresees the 
facts of science long before they are discovered through the channels of 
investigation. The power is given man for a purpose. 

Question. — How many forms of inspiration can you mention f 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



CONCLUSION OF TOME FOUR, 

In this Tome are seventy-six lessons, in Philosophy, and as many ques- 
tions, for your consideration. Please remember that it is not what a man 
reads, but what he digests, that makes him what he is. The man of one 
book is most to be feared, for, having nothing else to read, he peruses and 
studies it over and over, until it is a part of himself. So these lessons should 
be read at least six times each. 

As the membership in this School of Philosophy is for life, and as you 
will add to your knowledge year by year, the best thing you can do at first 
is to answer these questions in your scrap-book to your own satisfaction ; 
then to ours. For every essay you may send us, or for every question you 
may answer, if due thought and scholarship are shown, you will receive 
credit under the plan stated in TOME TEN at the end. 



Special Notice. 
See Kules of Graduation at the end of Tome Ten. 



TOME FIVE. 



DEVS AND ANGS, 

THE DESTROYERS AND BUILDERS. 



LESSOR CCI. 
Bacteria. — As we have already stated, there are six steps in the pro- 
cess of growth : Atoms, Molecules, Structures, DEVS and ANGS, Vege- 
tation, and Animal life. The present Tome will be devoted to the study of 
that minute but numerous and active life which constitutes the fourth step. 
Of late years many scientific works discussing the very recent discoveries of 
bacteria have appeared ; and, as bacteria is the general scientific term for 
those combinations of cell-life which may build np or destroy the human 
body, we may use that word to represent both DEVS and ANGS ; but the 
employment of the numerous terms which have been recently coined, 
numbering many hundreds, would bury the study so deeply beyond the 
understanding of the average mind, even of students, that the instruction 
would be practically worthless. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON ecu. 

First Glimpses of Bacteria. — A professor of anatomy in Leipsig, 
named Christian Lange, wrote a preface to a book previously prepared by 
Kircher, in the year 1671, in which he declared that fevers were the result 
of putrefaction caused by worms or auimalculse. Kircher made use of 
simple lenses magnifying thirty-two diameters, and obtained results which 
in recent years, have been found to be true. The learned men of his day, 
and especially the scientists whose lenses were imperfect, refused to believe 
his statements. Some years after a young man living in Holland, by name 
of Anthony von Leeuwenhock, who had learned the art of polishing lenses, 
constructed the first good microscope that was ever used ; by the aid of 
which he discovered in water, in an infusion of pepper, in the intestinal 
canals of flies, frogs, pigeons, fowls, and horses, very small but active forms 
of life. Although he placed before the Royal Society of London a full 

(151) 



152 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

description of the movements and habits of the minute forms, the other 
scientists of his day refused to credit his observations, on the ground that 
their own lenses failed to show such results. His microscope was better 
than theirs. He says in one of his letters : " I saw several thousands in a 
single drop of water, or saliva which was mixed with material taken from 
the incisor or molar teeth." 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON cciir. 

Early Theories of Putrefaction. — In the material taken from the 
teeth of an old man who had never cleaned his teeth, were found an incon- 
ceivable number of living animalculge which darted about more quickly 
than those seen in water. In a letter to the Royal Society, dated October 
1, 1692, he speaks of small round animalculse, each having a diameter one 
thousand times less than a grain of sand. In 1713, after finding similar 
organisms on the surface of greenish water, he came to the conclusion that 
the organisms seen on the teeth found their way into the mouth through the 
medium of drinking water. Another investigator, named Nicolas Andry, 
evolved the germ theory of putrefaction and fermentation. He maintained 
that air, water, vinegar, fermenting wine, beer, and sour milk were full of 
germs ; that the blood and pustules of small-pox also contained them, as 
well as various other contagious diseases. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCIV. 
Contagions. — With a kind of prophetic instinct Varro and Lancisi 
claimed that the dangerous character of marsh or swamp air was due to the 
action of animalculse. In 1726 an attack on this theory (which was 
founded upon actual observation), was made in the form of a satirical work ; 
which circulated so widely that the germ theory of disease was completely 
discredited. In the lapse that followed this assault from a species of ignor- 
ance which prevails in every age and generation, nothing was done until 
Linnseus, one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived, proved that the 
theories were in fact correct. This great scientist was at first ridiculed, but 
Marcus Plenciz recognized the importance of his discoveries and saw their 
practical operation in connection with putrefaction and contagious diseases. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DEVS AND ANG8. 153 



LESSON CCV. 
Specific Infective Germ. — PJenciz was the first to insist upon the 
specific character of the infective germ in each disease. For scarlet fever 
there was a scarlet fever germ, which could never give rise to small-pox or 
other disease. He explained a fever as dependent on the growth of a certain 
germ which had become lodged in the body in sufficient numbers to over- 
come the healthful agents of life; and showed that, as it required time for 
the numbers to multiply, the fever would appear only after a certain number 
of days. He claimed that the differences in the character of the symptoms 
and the severity of the same disease were due to the health of the constitu- 
tion and surroundings of the patient. In this way he unconsciously set up 
the theory of warfare between the builders and destroyers in the body, a 
theory that all physicians recognize to-day as true. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCVI. 
Bacterial Creatures. — At that time, however, and for many years 
afterward, these claims attracted but little attention ; but between that time 
and the year 1831, certain earnest investigators pursued the matter for their 
own gratification, until at last a large mass of facts had accumulated. The 
first attempt to reduce this chaos to something like order was made by Miiller 
of Copenhagen, who devoted himself to the work in hand with an untiring 
energy. His observations proved to him that there were many classes or 
species of minute life under two general divisions of builders and destroyers. 
After his work many advances were made, and the chief question which 
troubled those who followed him was as to the origin of these minute forms. 
Some very wise men asserted that they were the result of spontaneous gene- 
ration ; others, equally capable, said that they must be the children of pre- 
existing forms. We will not spend the time to state the various arguments 
advanced by those who maintained different views. The most important fact 
was that all science recognized the existence of bacterial creatures. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON ccvn. 

Greenish Scum. — If you possess a microscope and desire to investi- 
gate for yourself, place a piece of cloth under water running slowly from a 
pipe and allow it to remain for half a day with the water passing through it. 



154 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

At the end of that time you will find upon the cloth a collection of greenish 
scum, which is capable of being washed and preserved. The next step is to 
give it an opportunity to grow, which will require a few days in a place 
which is warm and light. The sunshine must either fall upon it or be near 
by as in a place shaded from the sun, or in a room where the sun has been 
shining ; for the Atoms are now to be taken from the light which has been 
brought to us by the sunshine. Under a fairly good microscope you will 
see a little species of life which has already obtained a world wide reputation. 
It has been deemed of so much importance by the United States Government 
that thousands of dollars have been spent in studying its habits, preserving 
its photograph, and making a large number of beautifully colored plate 
pictures, showing it in various ways. The name of this celebrated creature 
is Amoeba. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCVIII. 
Cell Life. — The amoeba is a little cell and looks like a lump of jelly. 
It has the power of traveling rapidly by simply rolling itself over and over. 
It eats by surrounding its food, instead of opening its mouth and taking it 
in. If you, who have no microscopes, will make a little bag about six 
inches long, four inches wide and not very thick, and place some fine sand 
within you may illustrate, on a larger scale, the manner in which a cell eats 
its food. Imagine some sand or a pebble to be near the bag, which the bag 
desires to possess. With your fingers press the middle of the bag until it 
is as thin as you can make it, then double the bag around its imaginary 
food, which disappears within the mass. The amoeba can make its own 
arms and legs at will, and withdraw them at will ; it does this by thrusting 
out any part of itself it pleases, and then resuming its former shape or tak- 
ing some new form. For so small a creature it shows the most marvellous 
intelligence. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCIX. 
Human Nature of Cell Life. — When it is quiet, if any external ob- 
ject touches it, it will respond at once. It has the power to eat without a 
mouth ; it can make itself into any shape it pleases ; it is without nerves, 
but very sensitive; it grows easily and rapidly by its propensity for sur- 



DEIS AND ANGS. 155 



rounding things ; it is neither male nor female, yet gives birth to children. 
If you want to know how this is done take a soft mass of clay or putty and 
divide it into twelve equal parts. Put two of these parts together to repre- 
sent the parent, .and divide each of the remaining ten parts into two ; these 
twenty smaller masses representing the food which the amteba is to eat. 
Let the parent amoeba approach one of these smaller parts ; it instantly 
wrajjs itself around it. Do this, and press the mass into one general 
mixture ; you will then realize how easily this simple cell devours and digests 
its food. If there are any stray particles or unnecessary matter in the food, 
the amoeba will cast it off as an excretion. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCX. 

Cells as Parents. — Now permit the mass of clay or putty to surround 
another portion of food and blend the same as before. The cell is getting large. 
Permit it to take two more good meals and we will iind it too bulky for 
one amcBba. Slightly elongate its shape and gradually press it around the 
middle until it has grown very narrow; continue this until it separates 
entirely. There are now two cells each of the same size, and the parent is 
as large as when it began to eat. Allow both these cells to continue the 
process of eating, growing and separating, and you have the whole story of 
the multiplication of small life. It is necessary for our students to do 
more than merely read or study ; we strongly advise them to get some clay 
or putty and make the foregoing experiments. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXI. 
Lowest Form of Life. — The amoeba represents the lowest form of 
what is called life, and scientists, as a rule, claim that it is the beginning of 
life. In order to do this they assume that molecules are passive agents of 
growth, having no activity of their own. In the light of the most recent 
investigations by Koch, Pasteur, and others, it is becoming settled that 
molecules and Atoms are both active and aggressive in the formation of cells, 
following the laws of their own affinities. But, as far as representative 
life is concerned, the cell is undoubtedly the most primitive form. It is 
independent, full of activity, and it pursues the object of its existence, 
which is reproduction, with unremitting determination. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



156 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 

LESSON CCXII. 
Combinations of Life. — The next step in the scale of cell-life is the 
combination of cells; and the first creatuire beyond the cell is called the 
olynthus. From these types we might proceed to enumerate the various 
grades of life, but it is sufficient to state the principle which underlies 
the rise in the scale of being. As the cells increase in number and become 
more elaborate in their formation they are said to occupy a higher plane. 
From the multiplication of cells we obtain all the intricate parts of a com- 
plex body, such as that of the higher animals or man. Thus, the skin con- 
sists of the weaving together of cell structures ; the muscles are threads or 
strings made of cells and united together like a rope of many strands ; the 
bones are originally formed of cells in a gelatinous mass, and become 
hardened by calcareous deposits. The weaving, building, knitting, and 
general formation of the arteries, veins and organs of the body proceed 
upon this same principle ; and the complex variation of all the parts, each 
suited to its own special function, displays a degree of intelligence that one 
cannot easily comprehend. This intelligence is present in every particle of 
the minute life which dwells within the body. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXIII. 
Does Cell-life Teach Evolution. — Owing to the fact that cells are 
necessary to vegetation, and vegetation to animal life, the theory has been 
recently advanced that man is evolved from the amoeba , thus going back 
somewhat farther than the theory suggested by Darwin, although in the 
same direct line. Life at the present time is exceedingly diverse ; it is 
difficult to imagine any shape, size, or species of life that does not exist. If 
man were to endeavor out of his own fancy to create new combinations of 
shape, he would find that, somewhere in the realms of nature, just such forms 
actually existed. Life, therefore, is diverse. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXIV. 

Evolution and Diversity. — If there is any reason for believing that 

this extraordinary diversity of life has at any time been less than it is, since 

life first appeared on the earth, then that fact might be used as an argument 

to show that all this variation originated in a simple and single form. As 



DEVS AND ANGS. 157 



far as we have any definite knowledge of the past, the evidence is that life 
is less adverse to-day than then, so that the argument would not be sus- 
tained. But what is a long period to the mind, may be short in the history 
of the earth. If a single cell is the progenitor of all species of life it must 
be true that new possible beings are now being projected in the uncounted 
millions of cells that are born in a small compass in every second of time. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj-s" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXV. 

Man and Cell-Life. — Leaving for the present the discussion of the 
origin of the human race, let us pursue the study of this primitive form of 
existence. If you will imagine yourself more than twice as tall as Mont 
Blanc and correspondingly as large, and make yourself believe that you are 
trying to discover a little child lying at your feet, you will get an idea of 
the difference in size between a man and the tiny life known as bacteria ; and 
therefore appreciate the difficulties which even the recent investigators have 
had to meet in order to study them. In order to grow they follow the plan 
adopted by the amoeba; but they do not grow as readily. The conditions 
must be favorable. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXVI. 
Rapidity of Increase. — The bacteria increases with a rapidity that is 
inconceivable, if the food which they require, and the conditions that are 
necessary, are not denied them. As soon as one is born, its very first act 
may be to give birth to another ; a slight constriction is seen around the 
middle, a partition forms, and there are two instead of one. These either 
fall apart, or else cling together forming little chains, threads, or colonies. 
In order to appreciate what is meant by rapidity in the growth of bacteria 
let us take the following illustration. A man who has one dollar is told 
that by doubling it a certain number of times he will have a fortune before 
he is aware. Allowing one second for each subsequent dollar to become two 
dollars, we will see how long it would take to produce a million. In the 
first second 1 becomes 2 ; then 2 becomes 4 ; then 4 becomes 8 ; then 8 
becomes !(>; then 16 becomes 32; then 32 becomes 64; then 64 becomes 
128; then 128 becomes 256; then 256 becomes 512; then 512 becomes 
1024; then 1024 becomes 2048; then 2048 becomes 4096; then 4096 



158 S03IE COURSE IN FHILOSOPHY—TOME FIVE. 

becomes 8192; then 8192 becomes 16,384; then 16,384 becomes 32,768; 
then 32,768 becomes 65,536; then 65,536 becomes 131,072; then 131,072 
becomes 262,144; then 262,144 becomes 524,288; then 524,288 becomes 
1,048,576. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXVII. 
Dangers. — Instead of one we have more than one million in twenty- 
seconds. Supposing each one of these should double itself, in another 
twenty seconds we would have 1,000,000,000,000,000. An eminent biologist 
has stated that, if the conditions were favorable, a single life, measuring 
less than a thousandth of an inch in length, would require but five days to 
completely fill all the oceans on the surface of the earth, or a space equal to 
that occupied by the entire surface of the earth, including land and water, 
for the depth of three-quarters of a mile. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON ccxviir. 

Intelligent Cunning. — So determined to live are these bacteria that, if 
the favorable conditions are withdrawn, instead of dying, they will collect 
and concentrate their vital powers in a small space at one end of each of the 
bacteria, then surround this by a thick cover, and await the return of 
favorable conditions in order to again enter upon active life. They require 
warmth and moisture in order to thrive. Great heat kills them by separating 
them into their molecules and atoms ; but extreme cold generally causes 
them to concentrate their powers in the nucleus heretofore described. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXIX. 
Conflict of Devs and Angs. — While bacteria are not as simple in 
their construction as the amoeba, they differ chiefly in the fact that, instead 
of being one cell, they are many. They are, however, as simple as the 
amoeba, when we examine their mode of living. They move freely, grow 
rapidly, and reproduce themselves in the same way. It must not be supposed 
for a moment that all bacteria are dangerous to life; for the fact is quite the 
contrary. It is clearly settled that without the aid of bacteria man could 
not live. Instead of being the organic ancestor of the human race, they are 
in fact the daily and hourly companions of his very existence. The ANGS 



DEVS AND ANGS. 159 



are the necessary builders of his body, and have many interesting and 
exciting battles in their efforts to drive the DEVS out. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXX. 
Value of Angs. — Let us see what the ANGS are doing every day for 
man; and then ask ourselves the question whether the doctrine of evolution, 
which assumes that man is descended through previous types and species, 
from this little organism, is more reasonable than the claim that the life of 
man has been co-extensive and always cotemporary with the activity of 
bacteria. In the first place cell life carries nutrition to every part of the 
body, builds up tissues, supplies new ones in place of those which are broken 
down, heals all the wounds of the body, and is in every sense the architect 
of our life. In the second place if there is any poison or dead organic 
material in the body, they tear it to pieces and make use of such portions as 
they can receive as food and drive off what remains. So eager and willing 
are they to do this that they fight to the last, and die fighting for their great 
companion, man. They are not overcome except by superior numbers. In 
the third place if there is any filth or dead matter in the air or elsewhere, 
they will disorganize it and set it free in the form of elements not harmful 
to human life. In the fourth place they seem to be conscious of the fact 
that the material on which man feeds is comparatively limited in quantity ; 
they therefore, as soon as either vegetable or animal life ceases, proceed to 
set all the particles free and thus prepare it for living again. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXI. 
Limit of Food. — When man dies his body passes through the process 
of decay, through the activity of bacteria ; if this were not so and all life, 
after death, remained intact, the supply of food would soon be exhausted. We 
know that but a small portion of plant life, but the grain of the plant, but the 
kernels of corn on the stalk, but the fruit on the tree, are suitable for food ; 
and that these elements are not plentiful is seen in the fact that crops continu- 
ously raised from the same land, after awhile exhaust the soil. From this 
we learn that life is not change, but that change is necessary to supply the 
needs of life. It has often been argued that because all things that live are, 
after death, restored as food for other life that follows, man only lives again 



160 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

in the separated parts of other beings, in trees, plants, animals and other 
men. This argument is refuted by the fact that nature exists for man and 
that her operations, instead of being mere wanton change, are all for man's 
good. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXII. 

Mysterious Activities. — That which we call life is a collection of 
activities, mysterious even when best understood; and, when death follows, 
the work of the bacteria begins. Every particle of the mass is torn asunder 
and, after a sufficient lapse of time the whole disappears as completely as 
though it never existed. Of all the millions who have dwelt upon the earth 
within the last six thousand years, but few survive even in their bones. 
Occasionally a trace may be seen where the conditions of decay were not 
favorable. Where the temperature is too cold the bacteria do not thrive, and 
putrefaction is suspended. For this reason when meat or other food is placed 
on ice it will keep longer than when warm. Ice however is not a destroyer 
of these living germs, either good or bad. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXIII. 

Human Bacteria. — Having glanced briefly at the good work done by 
our friends, the ANGS, we will say as we temporarily leave them, that no 
more interesting evidence of their friendship for us can be seen than when 
we watch the warfare which goes on between them and the LEVS while the 
body is suffering the pangs of contagious diseases. If we could look at the 
back of the hand when slightly moist we would find that hundreds of DEVS 
are striving to enter the portals of our flesh; but the ANGS have so com- 
pletely encased it with skin that they find no means of admission ; they 
are on the alert however for a slight scratch or bruise, whereupon they 
immediately take possession of the food which they always find in blood. 
Unless by a life of indiscretion or disobedience to the laws of health, our 
vitality has been considerably lessened, thereby requiring elsewhere in the 
body the service of the ANGS, these good friends will immediately congre- 
gate at the place exposed, and proceed to drive out the DEVS. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DEVS AND ANGS. 161 



LESSON CCXXIV. 
Wars in the Small Worlds. — The lesson that we learn is an impor- 
tant one. A weakened constitution may yield readily to the approach of 
disease. Except in the case of blood poisoning, venomous bites, and similar 
dangers, a vigorous constitution will never yield to the encroachments of any 
contagious disease. This fact is so well known that physicians act upon it in 
the treatment of their j)atients. Where the constitution is badly broken, it 
is impossible for the general body to spare the services of these agents which 
are required to build its tissues. But, when the vitality is strong they make 
short work of the invaders. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXV. 
Species in Small Worlds. — The large number of different species of 
bacteria, each of which preserves its individuality under all conditions seems 
to present an array of dangers which imperil the safety of man. They are 
found everywhere and manage to live under many discouraging circum- 
stances, although in a low temperature or dry atmosphere they are inactive. 
They prefer warmth and moisture and will seek the latter in the soil, in fruits, 
vegetables and plants, in the mouths of men, in the tissues of the lungs, 
along the digestive canals and on the skin. They are intelligent enough to 
select a means of travel, which is common dust. When they find moisture 
they cling to objects ; but when they perceive that the moisture is being 
withdrawn they become inactive and cling to fine particles of dust, seeming 
to know that sooner or later the dust will light upon and cling to moist 
surfaces, where they may again become active. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXVI. 

How Life is Invaded. — A.11 uncooked food without any exception 
whatever, carries bacteria into the stomach, either good, or bad, or both. In 
this form they are not dangerous. They are quite different from the trichinse 
of pork, for the latter take up their abode and multiply in the body, while 
the former are assimilated as builders or hurried out if they are enemies. 
If we take a mouthful of any fruit, thousands of bacteria will accompany 
it to the stomach ; if they are friendly agents they will be simple forms of 
cell life like the larger cells of which the fruit itself consists, and both will 

11 



162 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

be advantageous to the health of the body. Scientists divide general bacteria 
into the two classes we have mentioned, called the friendly ones, or wholesome 
vegetable cells, and the unfriendly ones, or poisonous cells. That the latter are 
bent on the destruction of man's life we shall see directly. We do not say 
this speculatively, but assert it as a fact. The only reservation is the doubt 
whether they have been sent upon earth solely to destroy or harass man. 
That he is the object of their attack is unquestionable. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essaj's," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXVII. 
Cholera Devs. — The study of cholera has excited perhaps a more 
general interest than any other disease excepting only consumption. In fact 
since the great epidemic of 1832 in Europe, it has had a peculiar fascination 
for skilled investigators. Before the three last epidemics (1865, 1873, 1884) 
cholera usually came to Europe from the east — the caravan routes through 
Persia, Asia Minor, and Russia. In Asia it breaks out regularly at certain 
seasons of the year, and a single epidemic has more than once decimated the 
population in various localities. The germ which gives rise to the disease is 
a DEV, shaped like a slightly curved rod. It is necessary for it to enter the 
stomach and pass into the intestinal canal in order to originate the disease. 
Once there with the conditions favorable it begins to multiply in the same 
way as the little cell life we have already described. A strong constitution 
is able to throw them off, and a person in average health only may delay the 
progress of the disease for a few days. In some cases it requires only a few 
hours for the body to become overwhelmed with the so-called poisons set free 
by the germs as they grow. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXVIII. 
Dev-Poison. — The most serious injury arising from the invasion of 
bacteria is not their destruction of the body by direct attack, so much as by 
the escape of a mysterious poison which some investigators believe to be in 
the nature of a gas. As gas, however, must necessarily consist of Atoms or 
molecules, it is more correct to say that the discharged poison is either 
malignant atomic or molecular life. Observation shows that DEVS feed 
upon the latter material, or, in other words, contain a concentrated mass of 
malignant Atoms or molecules. These are not brought into the body by the 



BEVS AND ANGS. 163 



germs, but must be found there ready as food ; thus confirming the theory of 
all physicians that the body must be diseased in order to yield to the inroads 
of any contagion. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXIX. 
Increase of Devs — DEVS cannot thrive except upon DEV Atoms 
and molecules. If the latter are not present in the body there can be no 
spread of the disease by the multiplication of the germs. The fact that in 
the presence of such food they multiply rapidly and thrive, proves conclu- 
sively that they take in and assimilate such food ; by doing which their size 
increases, each body divides and enormous numbers are born. The germ 
consists of its food, and both are alike in their nature. We assert, therefore, 
that, preceding any disease, the body must have been inhabited by malignant 
Atoms, who bide the time when a larger type of their own life shall appear. 
They are food for such type, but that is only a step in the process of growth. 
In the process of digestion all bacteria throw off part of the food which 
they take in; and we believe this to be the deadly poison which seems to 
prove fatal. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXX. 
Horrors of Devs. — The little curved rods, which in a few days or 
hours, may throw a victim into the horrible agonies of cholera, increase so 
rapidly that they are often discharged from the body in armies of living 
germs. They rarely multiply except in the intestines, but they can remain 
alive a long time in water and wherever there is moisture. If the clothing 
is moist, the disease may be conveyed in it for long distances ; but if it is 
thoroughly dried, the germs are totally destroyed. Cholera is a filth disease 
and has often been attributed to bad food, sewer gas, impure air, and living 
in crowded tenements. These conditions do not cause cholera but prepare 
the body to receive it. It is now absolutely certain that no other germ, nor 
any other cause, can give rise to this dreaded disease. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXI. 
Problems of Cholera. — Many experiments have been made with these 
curved rods taken from those who are stricken with cholera. It is known 



164 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

that, like nearly all bacteria, they may be cultivated outside the body ; and 
great interest is taken in what are called pure cultures. Cholera germs grow 
luxuriantly on blood and in milk. While they feed upon ordinary drinking 
water it is a curious fact that they cannot live in distilled water. There is at 
the present time no absolute cure for the disease. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Eules for Essaj-s," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXII. 
What Cholera Teaches. — We know that there is a certain species of 
bacteria differing in its intelligence, habits, and purposes from all kindred 
species of DEVS ; that this particular kind is the cause of cholera, and of 
no other contagion. It lives to kill the human body; and the only question 
remaining is, was it sent into the world for that purpose ? If we conclude 
that it was, we must decide what power sent it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXIII. 
Man's Enemies. — Applying every known principle of being we must 
conclude that the cholera DEV was created to kill man, that it has no 
other object in living. Against this claim is the possibility that it is a 
furnisher of filth; but filth is the work of the DEVS; and the two consort 
together to slay a human being. Still it may be claimed that careless habits, 
neglect of health, laziness and immorality destroy or lessen the vitality of 
the body, and so invite disease. Admitting this to be true, it is certain that 
the predisposition to all that is bad is due to the presence of DEV- Atoms 
in the blood and body. There is the invasion of the Atoms, their awaiting 
the approach of the DEVS themselves, their union and the emission of free 
DEV-Atoms. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXIV. 
Activities as Poisons — There are various kinds of poisons. The 
mere activity of structures and molecules will destroy the body, as it will 
any material which comes in its way. Thus chemicals, acids, fire, heat and 
similar activities tear and destroy the fibre of matter. It is not the nature 
or essence of a chemical, so much as its action that tears and destroys. 
Imagine millions of molecules, star-shaped, with points or teeth like those 



JDEVS AND ANGS. 165 



of a buzz-saw, attacking any part of the inward organization of the body ; — 
how soon would its tissues be dissolved and death ensue? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj's," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXV. 
Dev-Atoms as Poisons. — When a sunbeam brings a million Atoms 
to the earth, less than half of them are DEV- Atoms ; coming with an evil 
purpose. This is not a theory. It is the first and foremost fact of the 
existence of man. It is the cause of his misery from the cradle to the 
grave. These evil messengers do not blend easily with the ANG-Atoms. 
There is war between them ; war in the sun ; war on the way hither ; war 
on earth. One species may be imprisoned by two or more of the other; 
but, when free to engage in single combat, neither is able to master the 
other; hence the war in the sun, and the danger in the sunbeam. As soon 
as they are here they affiliate with the predecessors of their kinds. They 
form molecules, structures and DEVS ; while their foes form molecules, 
structures and ANGS. Until this fourth stage is reached neither is pre- 
pared to cope with the other. 

For Essays on this suliject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXVI. 

Excretive Poisons. — In the case of cholera the DEVS must find 
the body well stocked with broken down tissues, so that they may thrive. 
As they make their progress, multiplying and extending their invasions, 
they dissect these weak tissues, excrete DEV-Atoms and charge the circu- 
latory system with the terrible poison. All the blood is at work carrying 
friendly matter to the body, but at the same time is loaded with these excre- 
tions. The face of the victim changes countenance, and shows an anxiety 
which he cannot understand. The poison is gnawing at the stomach, the 
bowels throw off millions times billions of the DEVS, yet they multiply, 
and the blood becomes loaded. The ANGS fight for their master, but, 
alas ! a secret enemy has been lurking in the citadel of life for many 
months awaiting the attack, and now the eyes are sunken and horribly 
hollow ; the skin becomes cold ; the nails turn purple ; the evacuations 
are like rice water ; the system collapses and death ensues. In the economy 
of life there is no place for the belief that the agonies of this disease are 
evolved from the love of God to man. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Pailes for Essays,'" at the end of Tome Ten. 



166 H03IE COUESE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOBIE FIVE. 

LESSON ccxxxyii. 

Filth. — An eminent scientist recently told me in Europe that further 
proofs of the doctrine of evolution were found in the development of bacte- 
ria ; and asserted that the latter were evolved from filth. If a man does 
not wash himself freely he will carry about on his skin a mass of bacteria. 
That is filth, but it did not create the bacteria, it simply permitted them to 
remain. So if we do not clean our houses, sweep our floors, or wash our 
clothing, we will be surrounded by filth, and become diseased ; but we do 
not create anything , bacteria are abundant and their presence constitutes 
filth. If we eat decayed meat, we eat bacteria. All filth consists of decay 
caused by these germs, or else the germs themselves. From what could they 
be evolved? Not from a perfectly harmless species; for the drawing motive 
of change from a good to an evil intelligence did not exist in so small a 
world. The proof is overwhelming that evil is sent to this earth ; and the 
doctrine of evolution of DEVS could not affect that fact, if the doctrine 
were true; while the fact destroys the doctrine, as far as the creation of the 
evil is concerned. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXYIII. 
Typhoid Devs. — We have learned that the cholera DEVS are little 
curved rods. We now find a short, thick rod, distinctly rounded at the 
end, and called the typhoid germ. They are rarely single, but have the 
habit of collecting in clumps. It is one of their peculiarities to throw out 
long, wavy threads, and to have a snake- like movement. They form an acid 
excretion that becomes a poison. Like all DEVS, they hate the light, 
although their Atoms were forced to the earth in the sunbeams. They seek 
out the dark places for their habitation, and use holes and corners as means 
of rest whence they bide their time to go out and do all the harm of which 
they are capable. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXXXIX. 
The Lessons of Typhoid. — First there is the deliberate invasion 
months before, and possibly years ; for, no matter how many germs of this 
disease one may drink, they will either die or pass away, unless the prepara- 
tion for their growth '^s been previously made. Thus if the body is loaded 



DEVS AND AXGS. 167 



with weak tissues, ready to go to pieces under attack, due to breathing foul 
atmosphere, or to eating half rotten food, bad meat and the like, the typhoid 
DE V will have a happy time. He requires several days to get a good start, 
to form his thread-like, snaky tail, and to arrange his forces. During this 
period of preparation, the victim feels but does not know that something is 
occurring within. The DEVS are now ready to slay their prey. They form 
little towns and cities, in each one of which millions reside, all working 
twenty-four hours a day ; these are called ulcers in the intestines ; but, on 
the breast and neck, they are rose-colored eruptions. They go to the brain 
and destroy the thought molecules ; a dreamy delirium follows ; the head seems 
to swell until it fills the room ; people and objects become large and fantastic in 
shape ; and the mind wanders into that condition which the physicians call 
tvphomania. Still the DEVS keep multiplying, life is overwhelmed, the 
excretions pass off themselves from the body in a thin, dark, fetid and offensive 
fluid ; the tongue is filled with changed blood, now almost black, which 
shows how completely the enemy are in possession ; and death ends all. 
Why this fell destroyer ? Why did not that young life remain on earth and 
fulfill the hopes of those who had borne and loved it? The wanton purpose 
was formed before the earth came to exist. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXL. 

Consumption. — This dread disease, known as tuberculosis from the 
fact that little tubercles are formed on the lungs, is probably the most wide- 
spread and deadly of the ills that attack human life. A tubercle is a little 
hill, or mound, in the nature of an ulcer. These ulcers are now known to 
contain living germs, full of vitality and reproductive energy. They are so 
small that it was for a long time difficult to distinguish them ; but they are 
not only recognized but even cultivated and stained with aniline color, which 
they absorb, and by which their movements and growth may be observed. A 
tubercle DEV is long and thread like, almost like the snaky tail of a typhoid 
DEV. This distinct species is born to attack the lungs, just as the cholera 
and typhoid DEVS were born to attack the intestines and blood. Thus we 
see as far as we have gone, that man is under the surveillance of evil 
intelligences of the most terrible kinds. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of To je Ten. 



168 • H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 

LESSON CCXLI. 
The Yellow Tubercles — All dry particles are apt to be the carriers 
of consumptive-DEVS. They cling to moist surfaces^ and, when the air is 
moist, they do not float in it. As soon as the air becomes dry they rise on 
the particles of dust and are carried about until they find some moist surface 
whereon to cling. This is often the lips of a human being ; but, if they 
enter the nose, they are retarded by the spongy filters therein. Once in 
the mouth, they are drawn into the lungs by the mouth-breathers; ninety- 
seven per cent of humanity inhaling through the mouth instead of the nose. 
They go with the air directly to the lungs themselves ; but, even then, they 
will not live, unless bad food, meat, or air has conveyed DEV-Atoms there, 
and prepared the tissues for easy dissolution. Nearly everybody inhales 
consumptive DEVS daily. The safety is in the maintenance of the general 
tone of the lungs. But, supposing they find the tissues rotten, they at once 
get a hold, and begin to build a little city. Its color is grayish-yellow, it 
is of cheesy consistence, and of the size of a millet seed, plainly visible to 
the naked eye. Clusters of these tubercles, or mound cities, are of a 
decidedly yellow hue. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXLII. 
Progress of Consumption. — There must first be a weakness of the 
tissues of the body; and next the actual consumption-DEV. It is pretty 
sure to be at hand when needed by its co-conspirators. It is breathed into 
the small bronchial passages, and lodges in the minute cells. If the ANGS 
are not already overpowered by previous debility, or by inflammation from 
colds or illness, they make quick work of the intruder, he is slain, and his 
evil Atoms are hurried out of the body. Not so if the friendly ANGS have 
all they can do to attend to the general welfare of the body. The DEV 
finds permanent lodgment and commences to eat the weak tissue. Soon he 
divides, and two are there to eat. Each divides, and four are there. More 
come; ere long the village is established, which grows to a town, the town 
to a city larger than London in population ; they eat and tear the tissues into 
shreds, and a grayish-yellow mound, of cheesy appearance, is raised. The 
appearance is due to the thready DEVS and the shreds of tissues torn apart 
by them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DEVS AND ANGS. 169 



LESSON CCXLIII. 

Fatal Progress. — Unless the vitality of the body is revived the 
disease is sure to make steady progress. Its only cure lies in the effective- 
ness of the ANGS. To organize a regular warfare, form armies, and engage 
in pitched battles with the DEVS, is the only means of saving the life of 
the patient. The destroyed tissues are breathed off and float in the air as 
fine shreds, and of course cannot be restored; but the wound heals as soon 
as the DEVS are driven out. This has been done many times. Oxygen is 
also fatal to this species of bacteria, if it can be brought against them in great 
quantities. But in most cases the tubercle sends out its agents, conquers new 
tissues, forms new cities and involves the whole body. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXLIV. 

The Attack on Life — A young lady of gentle birth, of refined edu- 
cation and excellent accomplishments held the love of her family and friends. 
Her life was devoted to good and to the suppression of evil. For the cause 
of human purity she could not be spared. There were hearts whose hopes 
were wrapped around her happiness. Yet a tiny DEV, so small that it 
defied science for many years to find its like, lodged in the tissue cell of her 
innocent, blameless body, and reared its family of evil doers. One morning 
in the early spring a slight cough attracted the attention of those who loved 
her; yet she paid no attention to it, while the flowers grew at her feet and 
nature smiled brightly for her and those she rejoiced to be with. Not a 
suspicion lurked in the minds of her friends; though the wicked destroyers 
were building yellow cities in all her lungs. Resolved to take the fair 
young life they worked away all summer, and when autumn came the victim 
was helpless. With difliculty the breath came and went, the skin lay like 
a veil of alabaster on her shrunken form, a hectic flush painted the hue of 
life on her cheek within a frame of death, her eyes looked back to earth 
as she clasped the hand of one with whom she longed to stay, and so the 
sacrifice was made. Born of the spirit of hell, imbued with an intelligence 
that knew only malice, these DEVS wrought her ruin and gloated in the 
suffering they caused to others. I cannot believe that God gave her volun- 
tarily to these torturers and murderers. Her death satisfied no law of 



170 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 



divine life. It was wanton slaughter. From a far off realm in the sky 
comes an influence of evil, whose terrible operations we shall further witness. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXLY. 
LfCprosy. — There are some diseases which remain limited in scope, and 
depend for their reproduction upon the preservation of a very unusual 
species of bacteria. Such is leprosy. It has reappeared of late years, and 
its germs have been detected and cultivated. They are of two kinds, the 
tubercular and the anesthetic. Instead of dwelling in the lungs the leprosy- 
DEVS select the tissues under the skin, causing brown or purple irregu- 
lar spots on the face or limbs. The horrible changes of the features are due 
to the thickening of the skin in places, causing a mixture of melancholy 
and joy, according to the folds affected. The eyelids ulcerate in the latter 
stages of the disease. In order to prove that leprosy is caused by DEVS, 
it is only necessary to tie a rubber band tightly around a mound or tubercle, 
then cut it open. Millions of DEVS may be seen in the fluid. They are 
somewhat like the consumptive DEVS, though shorter and more pointed. 
They furnish another evidence of the evil influence which would destroy 
man if it could. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXLVI. 
Lockjaw^. — If one should cut the hand or foot and accidentally rub 
some common soil upon the place of the cut, a new species of bacteria might 
be admitted to the system. It is old in story, but new to the scientist. In 
1884 Nicolaier, while working with soils obtained from the fields and from 
the streets, found that these when inoculated into certain animals, produced 
effects different from those produced by soils taken from cultivated gardens 
and from woods. In about three days the hind-quarters of the animal 
became paralyzed, first the one near the inoculation, then the other ; then 
rigidity and loss of motion followed throughout the body, which became 
curved in the agony of convulsions, and ended in death ; thus resembling 
the progress of the disease in the human body. The DEVS which thus 
lurk in the soil are among the most terrible of the foes of mankind ; for 
any wound which is exposed to contact with soil, may absorb these DEVS; 
and, once in the system, there is almost no cure for lockjaw. They are 



DEVS AND AXGS. 171 



shaped like long delicate threads, having spores at the ends. Oxygen is 
their mortal foe ; therefore, if the wound is left open, or kept exposed to 
the air, lockjaw cannot occur. Whence came they, and why have they 
caused so much agony to the human race ? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj's," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXLVII. 
Dangers of Lockjaw. — A horse which, in the stable and in the field, 
always collects a certain quantity of earth on his skin and in his hoofs, may 
be easily inoculated with lockjaw-DEVS ; he, in turn, may readily inocu- 
late a man or another animal by a kick with the sharp iron of his dirty shoe. 
Gardeners, agricultural laborers and all who work with horses or in the soil, 
bear on their hands a virus which only needs a bruise or a cut to allow of 
its setting up . the terrible symptoms of lockjaw, or tetanus. Physicians 
state that such people and also children who play in the soil, furnish many 
cases of this disease. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXLVIII. 
DEVS For Poisoned Arrows. — Savage tribes, who are almost part 
of the soil, know the fatal effects of soil-poisoning. Dr. Ledantec, in an 
interesting account of the poisonous arrows used by the inhabitants of Santa 
Cruz, of the Solomon Isles, and of the New Hebride.s, speaking of the deaths 
from this cause of Bishop Patterson and Commodore Goodenough, with 
their companions, shows that they all died of lockjaw, in its most horrible 
forms ; and that this lockjaw was caused by soil adhering to the points of 
arrows. These instruments were made of reeds, each having a sharpened 
fragment of human bone at the end. The arrow-head is smeared with a 
sticky substance and then dipped into the soil taken from the edge of a 
mangrove swamp. Stanley also speaks of the same means of death employed 
by pigmies who dwell in the dense forests of Central Africa. How came 
these DEVS in the rich loam of the earth ? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXLIX. 
Diphtheria DEVS. — Although it has long been known that diph- 
theria was an extremely infectious disease, it is only in recent years that 
physicians hav^e obtained any reliable information as to the nature of the 



172 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME FIVE. 

specific poison which has caused so many deaths. I personally knew a 
family consisting of eight children, seven of whom died during one epidemic 
of this malady; and, during the last twenty-five years, the deaths from this 
alone have reached an enormous figure. The strange fact connected with 
the discovery of diphtheria-DEVS, is the peculiarly distinctive character 
of the species. It has habits of its own, and does not appear to be even 
remotely related to any other; thus furnishing clear proof that it could not 
have been evolved, but must have become one of many diverse species, with 
an intelligent purpose to attack man where others might not reach him. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCL. 
The Latest Science — From the most recent investigations it appears 
that diphtheria DEVS are found only in the false membranes of the throat, 
and that at this place the poisons are originated which permeate the system 
and cause death. This poison gives rise to heart failure, through its ready 
action on the nervous system ; although its interference with the nutrition 
of the tissues often causes paralysis. Diphtheria-DEVS are little thin rods^ 
nearly straight, with the ends slightly swollen. They cannot obtain a foot- 
hold in the membrane of the throat as long as it is healthy; but must always 
be preceded by inflammation, sore throat, ulcers, or similar disturbances. 
Still they lurk about, ready to obtain an entrance to the portals of the body, 
and kill the innocent. They serve no purpose, aid no good cause, help no 
sanitary law, but slay merely from a wanton hatred of mankind. No good 
power could have created them for the purpose of torturing the innocent. 
They add one more to the armies of evil that daily approach this planet. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLI. 
Hydrophobia DEVS. — Dogs are the friends of man, yet sometimes 
acquire a species of DEVS that can have no superiors in the work of 
causing the most horrible sufferings to humanity. It seems as if the 
emissaries of evil had not already invented a sufficient variety of perils to 
which to subject us; but must also lie in wait to make the attack through 
the agency of our most faithful friend, the dog. The isolated cases of 
hydrophobia seem so scattered that the danger of the disease is not realized 
until we learn of the number who apply for the Pasteur treatment. It then 



DEVS AND ANGS. 173 



becomes known that in a single nation there are thousands of mad dogs 
stricken every summer, and the records are replete with the report of cases. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLII. 
Origin of Madness. — No more puzzling proposition could be advanced 
than that which demands the origin of this malady. In 1884 Gibier was 
able to demonstrate in the third brain (medulla) of animals suffering from 
hydrophobia, small round bodies. This indicated that it was located in the 
vegetable brain, and further investigation has confirmed the fact. The 
medulla, we know, controls respiration, digestion, circulation and the auto- 
matic actions of the senses, as pricking up the ears, weeping, sneezing, 
coughing, chewing and biting. That the malady is old may be learned by 
examining the writings of the renowned physician Sasruta, who lived more 
than nine centuries before Chirst. He describes dogs, jackals, foxes, wolves, 
bears and tigers, suffering from the disease, foaming at the mouth, running 
about with their jaws open, tongue hanging out, saliva dripping, tails down, 
sight and hearing affected, and snapping at one another. This description 
suits the madness of the present day. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLIII. 
Fatality of DEVS. — We may consider it a settled scientific fact 
that hydrophobia is not of spontaneous origin, or evolved from other 
species; although the latter fact would only add to the strength of the 
theory that an evil intelligence is at work in the universe, designed to 
attack man. These DEVS are grown from DEV-Atoms, and are banded 
together to do injury to the human body; acting their part by special assign- 
ment. We have seen that the horse, man's close friend, is made the agent 
of the transfer of tetanus, or lockjaw. The dog is closer to man than any 
animal, and is selected to carry the fatal malady of madness. These DEVS 
must first find lodgment in the animal, and impregnate its saliva, before they 
can reach human life. When they do succeed in their great purpose, they 
take leisure to develop and multiply, and in due course of time they make 
their presence known. Hydrophobia possesses a deep and melancholy in- 
terest on account of its mysterious and prolonged latency, the horrible 
intensity of its paroxysms and its certain fatality. The most venomous 



174 HOME COUESE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

reptile or insect may inflict a wound for whose effects an antidote may be 
administered, but the virus of a rabid animal is almost without parallel. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLIV. 
Smallpox. — Year after year new light comes to the world from the 
story of bacteria. It is well settled to-day that the little spots on the face, 
which resemble flea-bites, and which accompany smallpox, are filled with 
DEVS. They commence at the face and soon spread to the whole body, 
becoming larger as the DEVS multiply, until their own numbers mingling 
with the torn tissues form pus, when they suppurate and become extremely 
irritable. Encased in the compass of the pustule, they attack the surround- 
ing cells ; the ANGS defend their great master ; a battle ensues, causing the 
most aggravating itching ; and the life of the patient depends solely upon 
the energy of the ANGS ; and this, in turn, is directly related to the vigor 
of the health. Here again we see the work of an evil intelligence. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLV. 
Malaria — Wherever certain DEVS are able to find the combinations 
of heat, moisture and vegetation, they thrive and become the poison known 
as malaria. The removal of decaying vegetation, such as grasses and weeds, 
carries these DEVS away ; but the burning of the green weeds, which are 
of DEV-growth, is a sure prevention of the further formation of malarial 
influences. I have known of communities where this law has been observed, 
and malaria was completely destroyed. They spring from vegetation, first 
causing the cells of the plants or weeds to become rotten, then escaping in 
fuller growth to seek their abode in man. Thus far we have learned of 
DEVS which attack the intestines, the stomach, the skin, the lungs, the 
throat, and the brain ; now we have those which lodge in the liver, travel to 
the stomach on the bile, and go into the general system, causing chills, fevers, 
congestion, and sometimes death. Like the DEVS of consumption and 
hydrophobia, they serve no purpose for the good of the world, and exist 
merely to kill or injure the human race. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLVI. 
Sores. — The ulcers, tumors, cancers, and similar sores which infest the 



DEVS AND ANGS. 176 



body are known to all recent investigators to be filled with millions of DEVS 
in every drop of their contents ; and, indeed, all pus is so composed. Many 
of these sores are undoubtedly the results of disobedience to the moral laws; but 
I have carefully examined the question as to whether they were created solely as 
means of punishment, and am satisfied that their origin is in no way connected 
with the sins of which they take advantage. They existed before the com- 
mission of the sins, they may be transmitted without reference thereto, and 
the innocent suffer as readily as the guilty. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLVII. 
Scrofula — This is a transmission of DEV-germs from an ulcerated or 
cancerous ancestor. They are life-long companions to the blood ; and, at 
any time when the tissues of the body become weakened, owing to a decreased 
vitality and the reduction of the army of ANGS, the scrofula DEVS take 
possession, form lumps, sores and ulcers ; and make life miserable. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLVIII. 
Intermarriage. — Tissues are weakened by the marriage of blood- 
relations; and, as nearly all blood carries some of the scrofula-DEVS of a 
beloved ancestor, little pimples, sores, white-heads, black-heads, and ulcers 
are sure to appear. Nor do they depend upon the intermarriage of human 
beings in order to develop scrofulous humors. I have given special atten- 
tion to the study of breeding, more particularly swine, but sufficiently to 
satisfy me that cattle follow the same law. I find that some hogs and cattle 
consort with their closest relations, and that the meat of their offspring is 
sure to load the blood of those who eat it with humors, appearing on the 
face as pimples, and even causing ulcers and running sores. A certain 
lawyer who purchased and ate swine thus reared, was accidentally bruised at 
the ankle ; a sore formed ; it would not heal; the leg became endangered; 
and amputation followed. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLIX. 
Erysipelas and Blood-poisoning. — The whole science of surgery, as 
well as its practice, has been revolutionized by the discovery of the fact that 
the open wound, when exposed to the air, is sure to become the feeding ground 



176 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 

of bacteria. I knew a butcher in perfect health, who was wounded in the 
leg by a falling knife. He paid no attention to it, although the application 
of an antiseptic wash would have removed all danger. In a few days he 
died of blood-poisoning. If we scratch a humor and expose it to the air, 
erysipelas is apt to set in; and the watery fluid of this condition, is known 
to contain DEVS. These dangers may befall the stoutest and healthiest. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLX. 
DEVS In Vegetation. — We might pursue the study of man's evil 
spirit through the process of other diseases ; but enough has already been 
adduced to show that there is an agency at work at every hand, designed to 
destroy life, and, more than that, to cause untold misery and horrors to 
many an innocent victim who had transgressed none of the laws of life, of 
Nature, or of God. It might be supposed that the evil spirit would stop 
here ; but the facts are overwhelmiogly otherwise. In the world of vegeta- 
tion, lurk poisons of every variety and degree of virulence. The mush- 
room is imitated by the toad-stool, and hundreds of lives have paid the 
penalty of the mistake. Warlike nations have had the kind services of 
these DEVS in their plan to kill one another. All of them are useless as 
medicines, and none serve any good purpose. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXI. 
Weeds — Man plants his garden and goes away to let it mature. On 
returning, he finds only a mass of weeds. The DEVS have been there; 
their home is among the weeds ; they will choke out every flower, fruit, vine 
and plant that bears good to the human race. They are merciless, relentless, 
active and determined. What a hopeless struggle there would be for ex- 
istence, if man were unable to fight down these enemies. Now tell me what 
brings weeds into the garden, what brought them into the world, what pur- 
pose they serve, and you will have answered the first great question of the 
birth of man. Too long has the answer been, — they teach man to labor. 
This determines nothing. It is not philosophical. In all ages the man 
who reaps the greatest benefit from the tilling of the soil does the least 
work. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DEV8 AND ANOS. 177 



LESSON CCLXII. 

Insects. — Of all the tortures of a light nature which surround man, 
are those committed by the flj, gnat, flea, mosquito, and other small insects. 
They show no mercy to the sick, the aged, or the helpless sufferer. They 
irritate the peaceful and arouse in all a hatred of Nature for permitting such 
pests to have existence. It is said that they protect man ; but facts of 
recent date prove this to be wholly untrue. Man is compelled to protect 
himself from them where he can ; but when he is too poor they irritate him 
by day, and poison his blood by night. They carry on their surfaces multi- 
tudes of bacteria, and may inflict a fatal case of blood poisoning whenever 
they light upon an exposed wound or scratch. In every sense of the word, 
they are the mortal enemies of our race. The claim that they eat putrefy- 
ing food, that would otherwise poison the air we breathe, has been exploded. 
I know that they attack the ANGS whose great office is to devour such 
food, or else set it chemically free; and, if no flies existed, the bacteria 
would the more quickly dispose of the rotten carcasses, and putrefaction. 
Even in the earth, where no flies can come, the decaying bodies are all set 
free as chemical elements by bacteria, who work to disadvantage. I have 
placed two pieces of meat in adjoining rooms in summer, with all conditions 
equal , except that flies are admitted to one room and barred from the other. 
In the latter case the bacteria made more rapid work with the putrefaction. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXIII. 

Milk. — The first food of human life is milk; and it is the first to suc- 
cumb to the invasion of DEVS. There was a time when popular notions 
controlled science ; among them being the idea that thunder, lightning, or 
some similar agency caused milk to become sour. The presence of bacteria is 
sufficient of itself to sour milk, and exposure to the air or to the surface of cans 
or receptacles that have been exposed to the air, will cause milk to sour. 
Take a jar that has been scalded thoroughly, so as to kill the DEVS cling- 
ing to its sides, and seal the milk within it, and it will not sour, even in a 
thunderstorm. On the other hand, permit even one bacillus to enter it, 
and in a few hours the microscope will show an enormous progeny. I have 
noticed that DEVS are more abundant than ANGS in the milk, the propor- 
tion l)eing nine to one. I have also noticed that, after a thunderstorm, the 

12 



178 HOME C0TJB8E IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 

ANGS are less numerous in certain localities, that seem to mark the path of 
the electric fluid. It may be that they are slain by the lightning, or driven 
to other parts, or absorbed in the flashes, or separated to their elements ; 
but it is a fact that something has occurred to them. It is quite probable 
that the DEVS are left free to attack milk or other food, and thus 
account for the change produced by thunderstorms. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXIV. 
Poisonous Effect of Lightning. — Some people believe that a thun- 
derstorm clears the air, burns up the poisons, and makes the conditions more 
healthful. If any person will carefully examine the facts he will find that 
two causes operate to purify the air: one is the usual change to a cooler 
quarter, the other the cleansing effect of falling rain. As against these good 
offices, is the rank poison of electricity. Now I do not wish to assert that 
all electricity is alike; I simply say that atmospheric-electricity is poisonous. 
It removes in 'some way the ANGS that befriend man ; but does no harm to 
DEVS. It increases putrification, as well as turning milk sour under 
certain conditions. It leaves both an odor of decay in the air of a 
closed house, through which it has passed and an oppressive feeling, 
which is perceived by those who enter, and have not been affected by 
the fluid itself ; while persons struck by lightning, if they revive, always 
complain of nausea and a bad odor. Not only because lightning has felled 
trees, destroyed innocent life, and inflicted injury to all kinds of creation, do 
I deem it an enemy ; but, for the reason that it is the friend of the little 
DEVS, I assert that it is the spirit of evil, consorting with evil for perni- 
cious ends. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXV. 
Cheese. — When made from fresh milk, just from the cow, and with 
its cream, there is no better food for man. Any other kind of cheese is 
unfit to eat. It seems that, under varying conditions, there are several species 
of DEVS which make their home in this strange mass of attraction. Hold a 
piece to your nose; — the familiar smell of the fresh, pure cheese is still 
there. In a few days it begins to get "old." The odor has changed and a 
certain "fragrance," appreciated by those whose appetites have become 



DEVS AND ANGS. 179 



vitiated, now drives out the original purity. It is "strong." Its peculiar 
flavor is due to the filthy excretions of bacteria. Take up any book that 
shows the experiments of microscopists, and you will find abundant proofs of 
this ; or, better still, procure a microscope of your own, and look at the green 
spots that are supposed to make "green cheese" valuable, and you will see 
these germs very clearly. What is called blue milk is caused by these 
DEVS ; as is also the phenomena of bleeding bread, or the superstitious 
miracle of the " bleeding host." Ask any owner of a microscope to let you 
satisfy yourself, or else seek information from the governmental authorities 
of any country, if you care to obtain the fixed facts. In Limburger cheese 
the soft or fluid mass is a graveyard of dead aud dying DEVS, with multi- 
tudes of living ones. A man might as well devour the pus of ulcers as this 
filth. It is true that he gets the same ingredients in either case, and that 
they do not harm him except in the way mentioned in the next lesson. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXVI. 
Ferment- DEVS. — Nothing can be more clearly settled than that 
fermentation is merely a certain kind of bacterial growth ; without which 
nothing could ferment. In the simple stages the DEVS are large and easily 
watched. They are not ANGS, but out and out DEVS. For this reason 
alone it is a natural law that fermented liquors are mild poisons. As soon 
as they enter the stomach in the form of wine, cider, or beer, they are 
absorbed into the blood and travel to all parts of the body. What ensues ? 
DEVS like DEVS; ANGS like ANGS; ANGS and DEVS dislike each 
other. This is always true. When the invaders, travelling in the blood, 
seek to lodge in any cell or tissue, their old time, eternal enemies repel them; 
but to do this a pitched battle is necessary. All through the body the 
excitement runs high, the face is flushed, the blood is erratic, and a momen- 
tary feeling of exhilaration pervades the senses. Soon the invaders are 
expelled, the excitement subsides, and the weary tissues seek rest. A col- 
lapse follows. No special harm has been done, except as appears in the 
next lesson. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 



ISO HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 



LESSON CCLXVII. 
Bacterial Battles. — A few ounces of fermented liquor taken daily 
into the body can do no harm, unless the ruin of inferior parts of the body 
is considered harm. Thus, in the general circulation of the blood, there 
are parts where the ferment-DEVS obtain a foothold, and are not as easily 
expelled. The nose is one of them. In a few weeks or months little white 
pustules form in the pores of the nose; and have come to stay; but the end 
of the nose is the seat of a very quiet war, the only indication of which is 
an occasional itching. Look in the mirror daily, and you will find the nose 
becoming slightly inflamed by the excitement, and its redness never gets less. 
There is no remedy for an alcoholic nose. So in other parts of the body of 
a very, very moderate wine drinker, there are deposited similar DEVS who 
do not come there for a merely temporary residence. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,' ' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXVIII. 

Alcohol-DEVS More than twenty years ago I delivered a lecture 

before a temperance organization of which a Mr. Flynn was president ; in 
which lecture I stated certain results of a scientific investigation, calculated 
to startle those who heard them. The lecture was repeated there and else- 
where, and there are many living to-day who recall it. I state this to show 
how long my mind has been impressed with the fearful truths from which I 
have never had occasion to swerve. Then and now the one law was and is 
presented : that fermentation is bacterial multiplication, and alcohol is the 
winged escape of the spores. I know that this idea is new to science, as it 
was twenty years ago when I first publicly stated it ; but I beg to submit 
my proofs, and shall state only the facts that are well known to all scientists, 
leaving the conclusion as the only thing neio. In other words I will draw 
my conclusion from well established facts ; and will show that it is the only 
conclusion possible. Nothing can be more important to mankind than this 
investigation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXIX. 

Science I will quote from a well known author (the celebrated 

Pasteur): "Fermentation may be considered from two points of view — 
first, as merely a chemical process which is started by the products of micro- 



DEVS AND ANGS. 181 



organisms ; second, it may be looked upon as due to the action of living cells, 
special fermentation being induced by special organic forms." These cells 
are composed of a granular protoplasm surrounded by a definite envelope. 
When these vesicles or cells are watched during their development, growth 
and multiplication, there may be seen, at or near one or the other extremity of 
each, small protoplasmic bodies, which are projected beyond the general out- 
line of the cell, and which gradually but surely increase in size. Ultimately 
there is a constriction, more or less marked, between the original cell and the 
bud, and the bud grows to the size of the parent cell ; the same process is 
repeated time after time, until there is formed a chaia or series of ellipsoidal 
or rounded yeast-cells. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXX. 
Brewing. — Let us see what takes place in brewing, a process which, 
though uQtil recently incompletely understood, has long been carried on, on 
an enormous scale in most northern countries. Malt is barley in which a 
certain proportion of the starch of the grain has been converted into sugar 
by the process known as " malting." This consists essentially in moistening 
the grain several times, keeping it at a temperature high enough to promote 
its sprouting, during which a substance called diastase is developed as the 
result of the vital activity of the cells in the germinating grain which acting 
on the starch converts it into sugar. As soon as this takes place the sprout- 
ing is stopped by raising the temperature and then by drying the grain to 
kill the young plant and so prevent further sprouting. To obtain a fer- 
mentable liquid, a solution of the sugar and of the other soluble constituents 
of the malt is made in hot water; this is allowed to cool. A certain quan- 
tity of "high" yeast is then added to the solution, and during the process 
of fermentation the temperature may be increased. After a time little 
bubbles of carbonic acid gas are seen to rise, the yeast increases in quantity 
and gradually rises to the surface, whence it is skimmed off, and may be 
again used to set up fermentation, if still pure. The fluid becomes bright, 
clear and sparkling (from the presence of carbonic acid), and contains a 
certain proportion of alcohol ; whilst the sugar, if the fermentation has been 
properly carried on, has almost entirely disappeared. This is what is known 
as "high yeast" fermentation. It goes on most readily at a comparatively 



182 E03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 

high temperature, and the yeast rises to the surface as it is formed, bringing 
up with it a certain proportion of the impurities contained in the liquid, the 
heavier particles falling to the bottom. The process goes on rapidly, but 
unless great care is taken it is said that there is a danger that impurities may 
get in and that secondary fermentations may be set up, though this is a posi- 
tion now scarcely tenable in these days of India Pale Ales. 

For Essaj-s on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Teu. 

LESSON CCLXXI. 
Low Ferment. — The "low" fermentation is brought about by a 
ferment which acts more slowly, at a much lower temperature, and through 
the agency of yeast-cells that sink to the bottom as they are formed. This 
fermentation of beer must be allowed to go on at a certain temperature, and 
the fluid is not completely ripened until the end of about fourteen days. 
This low temperature is maintained in the small breweries by inverted cones 
of metal, containing ice, which are allowed to float in the fermenting liquid ; 
they are kept constantly supplied with ice, and the number used is regulated 
according to the temperature of the external air. In the larger breweries 
the same results are obtained by passing currents of purified cool air over 
the surface of the fermenting tanks, which, as a rule, are underground, so 
as to allow of the temperature being maintained at an extremely equable 
level. Formerly all beer was made by the high fermentation process, a 
system that still prevails in England, but in Germany, Austria, and Scanda- 
navia, and also in France, the low fermentation has almost entirely ousted 
the high form. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXII. 
Spores. — At one time it was supposed that there was no development 
of spores ; but, thanks to the researches of Reess, by whom the presence of 
spores within the cells of certain forms of fermentation was demonstrated, 
and to those of Hansen, who was able to confirm their observations as regards 
spore formation, and also to demonstrate the presence of typical chain- 
mycelia, as well as of the budding form, these organisms have been put into 
a separate family, and the question of the existence of spores has been 
settled. They are of the vegetable class, as are all disease germs of every 



JDEVS AND ANGS. 183 



class. The next great fact is already known : that is the habit of spores 
when attacked by heat or cold. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXIII. 
Spore-habits — The purpose of the spore is to protect the life it bears. 
No greater proof of minute intelligence has ever been shown. If we attack 
by heat or cold certain cells or bacteria, each will instantly form a spore, 
into which its powers of endurance are stored ; and, when a favorable 
opportunity occurs, the spore will send forth the cell-life again. In scientific 
works true spores are described as " special protoplasmic cells, which are 
first developed in the mother cells, and are then surrounded by a very thin, 
but hard and dense membrane. It is this dense covering that protects the 
delicate protoplasm within, against the action of the numerous destructive 
influences to which the spore is exposed. Thus cholera germs will survive 
the cold ; and lodged as spores in frozen water, will reappear as cells at a 
warmer date. Some spores are killed at a moderate high temperature ; 
others are able to stand a boiling heat in dry air. Moisture and heat are 
most fatal to them ; for which reason a good steaming is the best known 
process of disinfection. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXIV. 

Nature of Spores. — A bacterial germ, capable of becoming the agent 
of death, may be attacked by heat or cold, and compelled to form a spore. 
If the germ itself has caused considerable difficulty to discover and study 
it, the tiny spore (or nucleus, as we called it in our lesson on the amoeba) 
would naturally be more difficult to investigate ; and so it is, but its nature 
is quite well understood. While it is a part of the cell, it is unlike it in one 
chief respect — its intensity or vitality is greater. This would naturally 
follow, as it carries the concentrated vitality of the whole cell. Now to 
review : 

Science tells us that fermentation is organic life. 

Science tells us that each organism in the fermentation may form a 
spore. 

Science tells us that the spore is of greater intensity than the organism 
from which it is concentrated. 



184 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 



Science tells us that a moderate heat will set free the spore-part of 
the cell. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXV. 
Spores in Distillation. — If a moderate degree of heat is applied to 
ferment-cells, the spore is set free and rises, leaving the dead protoplasm of 
the original cell behind. This is called distillation, or the separation of alcohol, 
in a more or less pure condition. As we had a right to expect, we find that 
alcohol is of a more intense vitality than the ferment from which it is taken. 
It holds the same relation to fermented liquors that the vitality of the spore 
holds to the vitality of the entire cell ; or that concentration holds to the 
mass from which it has been concentrated. If a man drinks fermented 
liquor he deposits a very small number of DEVS in his body, but they are 
cell-DEYS, and, in a limited quantity, are harmless, except as to discolora- 
tion of the nose, which cannot be said to affect the general health. But if 
he drinks alcohol, he deposits in his body the spores of the ferment-cells. 
Any man who would deny this must understand that it is as clearly settled 
to-day as that we live, that there can be no fermentation without organic life 
called DEVS, and that there can be no alcohol without fermentation. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXVI. 
Brain Images — When the spores, or alcohol come into the body, they 
excite the enmity of the ANGS, and a battle ensues, as in fermentation. 
The brain is the freest battle-ground, and the powers of thought are inter- 
ferred with in the cerebrum, the powers of muscular control in the cerebel- 
lum, and the involuntary acts proceeding from the medulla. During the 
battle the man is said to be drunk. At length the DEV-spores are ejected, 
or else they are scattered throughout larger areas of the body where 
they keep up a constant irritation. It is rarely ever true that all are 
ejected, even in the moderate use of alcohol. But, when the quantity is 
increased, a permanent excitement remains. An affiliation occurs between 
the DEV- Atoms and the alcoholic DEVS, by which a "desire " for a greater 
affiliation is created, and the habit known as alcoholism ensues ; growing on 
itself ; and ultimately demanding more spores, or disrupting the harmony 
of the system in ca*e of denial. At length the spores crowd every nook and 



DEVS AXD AKGS. 185 



corner of the body of the victim and make themselves manifest in the blood, 
brain and senses. From this source arises the well-known brain images. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXVII. 
Optical Contortions. — Something cannot come from nothing. A 
man sick with fever, whose brain sees horned images within itself, but 
which appear to be in the space about him, is not visited by spirits from 
another world. They are in his brain, either along the optic nerve, or in 
that part of the brain which interprets the sense of sight. So, when he 
hears strange sounds, they are delusions of hearing. A man suffering from 
the horrors of delirium tremens, often sees images larger than himself, 
which he supposes to be before him, not in him. That they are in him is 
not disputed. Two most important facts now appear. First, the object 
seen is an actual snake, dragon, or whatever it may be, lodged in the brain, 
undoubtedly smaller than even the smallest microscopic DEV. Second, the 
brain is proved to be a greater magnifier than the most powerful microscope ; 
for this spore-DEV, under such an instrument, would look exceedingly 
small when seen at all ; while, in the brain it is magnified to dimensions 
that are comparatively enormous. Although several intricate problems are 
involved in this fact, the principle is of vast importance to philosophic 
science. It attracted my attention more than twenty years ago, and led me 
to believe that the power of the optic nerve could discern the indivisible 
Atom. It also proves that the brain generates Pul-glow, and furnishes its 
own photographic light ; for I have evidence from many drunkards that 
they see snakes and dragons as well in a dark room as in broad day 
light. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXVIII. 
Alcoholic Intelligence. — I believe all matter capable of action, to have 
intelligence. Few things are more active than alcohol. I consider it the 
invention, or rather out-growth, of that influence of evil which has been 
so thoroughly proven in this Tome, to exist on every hand. If the hydro- 
phobia-DEVS are cunning enough to select man's dearest animal friend 
as an agent by which to attack his life and happiness, it is not improbable 
that a more subtle species of these messengers of the arch-enemy should 



186 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOWIE FIVE. 

select man's appetite by which to invade his body, destroy his usefulness, 
his mind, his happiness, and his life. Turn any way we please, every 
portal of the body is open to the attack of this enemy, through some species 
of its greater self. It is not accident, it is not a blind law, it is not an im- 
pulse of nature, it is not a rule of health, it is not for the welfare of man or 
the consistency of life; it is a deliberate, defined, fixed and relentless pur- 
pose to make man miserable, to rob him of joy, and to shorten his oppor- 
tunity for preparing himself for the better life to come. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXIX. 

Philosophy of Evil In the food he eats, the water he drinks, on 

his skin, at his lips, clinging to his teeth, lodged in his throat, hiding in the 
lungs, lurking in the stomach and intestines, traveling in the blood, are 
DEYS. He cannot get rid of them ; his only hope is to escape their assaults, 
by his friendly affiliation with the ANGS. In these little messengers of 
divine good- will, lies man's only safety. If the DEVS were only in larger 
shape, as in wolves, lions, tigers, and beasts of prey, he could fight them in 
open warfare, and know his chances hour by hour. But the evil one is far 
too subtle to expose his deadly agents. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXX. 
Hidden Evil. — Wanton cruelty is a hard term. Nature is the child 
of forces, not their parent. The good and bad come into being, side by side, 
and struggle for supremacy. A child is attracted to the rose ; its petals are 
finely colored, clustering in an array of beauty that no human skill can 
equal ; to the eye it is of velvet softness, sweet and lovely ; its fragrance is 
exquisite perfume ; so the child, innocent of the rule of life, clutches eagerly 
at it. The hidden thorn, lurking close beneath the radiant flower, pierces 
the flesh of the hand that sought to claim it. This is wanton cruelty. It is 
not a law of mercy. It is far from the law of justice. No element of 
protection demanded the exercise of cruelty. It teaches no lesson, except to 
shun the beautiful things of life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



r>EVS AND ANGS. 187 



LESSON CCLXXXI. 

The Porcupine. — A man pursuing a porcupine received a shower of 
quills. Each quill was barbed, so that the sharp end pricked its way into 
the flesh, while the barbs held it from being withdrawn. He pulled at them, 
but in vain. The very fact of his pulling, and the mere action of the circu- 
lation of the blood, caused the quills to move; and they could move but one 
way, — toward the vital parts of his body. Such is the construction of the 
quills of this malicious creature, that, unless they are torn out of the flesh 
by hard force, they will work to the interior of the body and destroy its life. 
It may be argued that this is but a natural means of defence; all creatures 
being kindly provided by Nature with some such means ; but the claim is 
not true. A porcupine, under attack, is no safer when it throws barbed 
quills, than it would be if it threw merely pointed ones. Its safety or danger 
is determined at the time of its conflict with man, not when he goes home to 
suffer the tortures of a long and deadly agony while the implements of 
defense are working their way to his heart. Nor is the life of the porcupine 
of any use to mankind, or Nature. 

For Essays on this suliject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXXII. 
Venom — In collecting data from a thousand sources I am surprised 
at the frequency of the attack of snakes upon human life. We hear but 
little from them in our more civilized or thickly settled communities, and 
therefore do not realize that there is such a danger. To us, perhaps, the 
story of the Rattlesnake, the Moccasin and the Copperhead, is one that is 
read only in books ; but the venomous reptiles have slain their quota of 
innocent beings. A more cruel or unjust death cannot be imagined. Instead 
of defending themselves by this supposed attack they invite the hatred of 
mankind and make their own extinction a necessity. Nor is their bite a 
momentary means of defence. Its fatality appears many hours afterward, 
not when given. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXXIII. 

Neutrality of Venoms. — A man who has been bitten by a deadly 
snake, is able to drink all the alcohol you can pour into his stomach, without 
showing the slightest symptoms of intoxication. All doctors who have 



188 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME FIVE. 

treated patients of this kind, know that a gallon of whiskey can be taken 
into the system, without fear of making the person drunk. One medical 
work says; ^'You may fill him with whiskey, then let him swim in it, and 
it will not make him drunk so long as the poison of the snake remains in the 

system. This is about the only thing that whiskey is really good for." 

The poison of the snake is a venom filled with DEVS, who increase rapidly 
and emit a poison in their excretions. Whiskey, or any alcohol, consists of 
spores loaded with another species of DEVS. In the conflict that occurs, 
one species neutralizes the other, and thus the ANGS are enabled to come in 
and expel both. Many lives have been saved on this principle. So when 
meat, or other matter that may decay, is placed in alcohol, no DEVS from 
without or within dare attack, and the substance is preserved. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXXIV. 
Natural Dangers. — Apart from the efforts of an evil influence to 
slay man, he is in the way of many natural dangers. There are blind forces 
at work all about us ; and one who attempts to interfere with them must 
expect to place himself within the reach of their operations. The difference 
between a DEV-danger and a blind danger is this : the former seeks, by its 
own intelligence to destroy man ; the latter destroys him only when he places 
himself in its way, and is called a natural danger. It may, in every 
instance, be turned into account as an agent of usefulness for man's welfare. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXXV. 
Purpose of Lightning. — I am satisfied that lightning is not a blind 
force, but an intelligent expression of evil. There are many reasons for 
believing this, that need not be stated at this time. On the other hand I 
believe that phospho-electricity and vital electricity are agents of a beneficent 
purpose, at war with the larger fluid, called lightning. This question prop- 
erly belongs to another field of discussion. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXXVI. 

Beasts of Prey It is said that wild beasts as a rule do not attack 

man, except in self-defense, or to satisfy their hunger. The facts are 



BEVS AND ANGS. 189 



not quite as satisfactory as we would wish to find. It is certain that, 
when wild beasts have once tasted human flesh, they prefer it to all other 
kinds of food ; and kill wantonly to obtain it, although other food may be 
more conveniently near. Another fact is that such beasts prefer solitude 
when not hungry ; but, as they are generally hungry, man is nearly always 
in danger. The great fact is, they exist. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the eud of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXXVII. 
Origin of Animals. — Enough evidence from geology is at hand to 
prove conclusiv^ely that, when the earth was young, it teemed with an 
immense exuberance of life. Its excess has almost entirely disappeared. 
Where has it gone? In the morning of the world trees were gigantic, 
leaves and foliage grew to enormous size ; and animals were giants in 
stature, and superabundant in numbers. A luxuriance of growth that 
would be the marvel of Nature at the present day, then filled this planet. 
The vegetable-cells are to-day less, and animal life is reduced. Were plants 
then poisonous, and animals beasts of prey ? In the struggle of vegetation 
to gain the supremacy, the good succeeds ; but, among animals, the savage 
species easily overpower their mild and peace-loving opponents. What 
chance has a horse against a ravenous wolf clinging at his throat; or a cow 
against a tiger ? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCLXXXVIII. 
Evolution of Beasts. — If mild and savage animals peopled the earth 
together, the latter must soon have conquered the former, except in rare 
districts. If the more savage species were first to appear, the tamer kinds 
could not have been evolved, for two reasons: the tendency of all wild 
animals is to retain their savage natures, even under cultivation by gentle 
methods; and, as soon as milder species appeared, they would have been 
destroyed by their enemies. If the gentle animals came on earth first, the 
savage might have been evolved from them, for it is the tendencv of tame 
animals to become wild when left to themselves. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



190 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

LESSON CCLXXXIX. 
Evil in Evolution. — If the doctrine of diversity is true, there are 
germs of all kinds of life everywhere present in the earth and in the air ; 
and need only the mere opportunity to grow, in order to appear ; so that, 
if every species were extinct to-day, or could be annihilated as by fire, all 
of them would re-appear as soon as the conditions favored their growth. If, 
on the other hand, the doctrine of evolution is true, the mild, gentle, tame 
creatures designed as the companions of man, must have preceded the savage 
beasts. In either case the doctrine of evil remains equally intact ; for, under 
the theory of diversity, good and evil come to earth hand in hand, the one 
from a beneficent source, the other from an evil origin; while, under the 
theory of evolution, the good precedes and the evil follows. We cannot get 
away from this ever pursuring spirit of bad. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXC. 
Primitive Man. — Evil is an energy that cannot die. We are forced 
to the conclusion that creation is diverse, and that species are not evolved 
from a single original kind. Man must have come upon the earth as a 
primitive being, quite different from that nobler type now seen ; but the 
evolution has been confined to his own development from a less to a more 
cultured state. The most extended claim of Darwin goes no further than 
to prove a modification of incidental parts of the structure confined to a 
single type. Nor does he furnish the slightest evidence of any modification 
which bridges two species ; while, on the other hand, the pages of his book 
abound in proof of the fact that sterility bars the crossing of species; show- 
ing the intent of Nature to maintain the law of diversity. 

For Essays on this subject, see ' ' Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXCL 
Order of Creation. — All species of all classes of created beings were 
ready to begin life at one and the same time ; each awaiting only the condi- 
tions that favored their appearance. It would, therefore, be necessary for 
vegetation to first gain a secure foothold on the earth ; not only to provide 
the necessary food for the creations that followed, but also to adopt itself to 
the natural conditions that appeared. At this time the germs of all the 
species of life were ready to begin growth, but the opportunity was lacking. 



DEVS AND ANGS. 191 



So, for millions of years, vegetation flourished alone on the planet. The 
water became at length suited to its life, causing fish to appear; the air was 
favorable for birds; the earth for animals, all species being produced at once, 
the savage slaying the gentler kinds, the latter continually re-appearing until 
man came to protect them. 

For Essays ou this subject, see "Rules I'or Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXCII. 

Suffering of Primitive Man. — There can be no doubt, whether we 
obtain our evidence from the Bible, from science, or from nature, that all 
kinds, races and types of humanity were launched forth upon the earth at 
one and the same time, and as the last division of life that was to appear. 
The cruelty of creation may be understood from the vestiges that now re- 
main. Instead of the few races that seem supreme, there may have been 
hundreds, all warring and jumbling against each other and brute creation ; 
killing without thought of mercy ; tearing, rending, torturing, in the mad 
effort to preserve life ; and filling the air with one continual round of shrieks 
that circled the globe. Any man who will take the trouble to study the 
history and habits of the tribes that occupy the earth at the present day, 
will be convinced that good and bad, weak and strong, slayers and slain 
made the kaleidoscopic story of a horrible past. Had man been exterminated 
countless times, the diverse germs of all his species would have taken root 
as often in the soil of existence, and kept him in his place as the pet creature 
of the universe. 

Tor Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXCIII. 
Evolution and Diversity. — Of the possible hundreds of types of 
primitive man, all but five have disappeared. The seons of time have wit- 
nessed the reduction of diverse creation. Evolution teaches the constant 
variation of species and the development of kinds, thus multiplying differ- 
ences. Diversity teaches the opposite, or the reduction of differences, tend- 
ing to the final sole supremacy of man. Under evolution there must be 
sub-divisions, or extinction. Under diversity man is the focus of the 
centralization of existence. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



192 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

LESSON CCXCIY. 
Deathless Energy. — Geology tells us that whole species have become 
absolutely extinct ; that the gigantic beasts of earlier periods are without 
representation at the present time. The intelligence that made up the mass 
of being lias not been lost. Somewhere in beast or man that deathless 
energy still lives. To determine its nature we must apply the principle of 
good or evil, that which serves man is good, that which serves him uot is 
evil. Earlier creation was the inspiration of wickedness, as far as savage 
life was concerned ; and that energy, when so much of it was annihilated, 
reappeared in man. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXCV. 
Brute Origin. — Bacteriology teaches us that the enemies of man, in 
small life, are first the tenants of beasts. The Bible account of creation, as 
well as both nature and science, agree that beasts preceded man in the order 
of time. The energy of evil in man is clearly of brute origin, and it is 
equally clear that evil arises from brute energy. The two dividing forces 
of the universe, while passing through vegetable protoplasm, became sepa- 
rated in lower animal life; the evil becoming concentrated in the brute, 
while the good passed on to a fairer type of vegetation. Had man never 
tasted fleshj I doubt if he would have ever sinned. The shape of his stomach 
and his ready assimilation of meat prove his present adaptation to flesh as a 
food ; but these are evolved from a vegetable condition. If there is a 
personal devil, he must have tempted man through flesh as the forbidden 
fruit. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXCVI. 
Philosophy of Cruelty. — Desiring to adjust all nature to God, theo- 
logians have, in all ages, asserted that the dangers of life are warnings 
to men to turn from their sins. The effect of the warning has been to 
caution men against the consequences of sin ; the consequences have all and 
always pointed to punishment ; and the punishment has been declared to be 
a consignment to the power of evil, even to a personal devil. When the 
children scoffed at Elijah, they were turned over to the devil, who appeared 
in the form of bears. Take punishment for sins out of our creed, and the 



DEVS AND JA^GS. 193 



evil oue must be discontinued. Remove this evil one, or the agency for evil, 
or the intelligence which originates all the cruelties of life, and you must 
remove every form of creation that works ill to man. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON ccxcvir. 

Crimes of Nature. — I do not believe that God created the savage 
natures of wild beasts, for they are the enemies of peace, of good-will to 
men, of happiness; I do not believe that He created the poisons of vegetable 
growth, which aim the arrows of their malice at the heart of man ; I do not 
believe that He created the bacteria which, at every opportunity, seek ad- 
mission to the sacred temple of life in order that they may swarm in the 
vitals of the body; I do not believe that the venom of reptiles is the gift of 
a divinely benign creator, calculated either to bring peace to man or to serve 
any purpose of chastisement. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXCVIII. 
The Extinction of Man. — We learn from a study of the earth that a 
flood at one time over-spread its surface, and long after it was fit for the 
habitation of man. The Biblical account seems verified both by geology, 
and by the fact that history goes back but a few thousand years. Man was 
practically annihilated. Had every person been destroyed, the germs of the 
races would have sprung from the protoplasm that abounds in all water; 
and the negro as well as the Caucasian would have re-apj^eared. If the 
billions of souls who dwelt on earth were drowned by the upheaval of new 
continents and the sinking of old, the act itself was either cruel, or wantonly 
cruel. It was cruel, if the race was guiltless. But if every man and 
woman had grown so bad that the whole race, excepting eight, deserved 
death, it was an act of wanton cruelty to create a race that must eventually 
be destroyed. Whichever way we look at it, a loving God could not, 
and did not conimit the act. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCXCIX. 

The Purpose of Creation. — The more we examine the complex re- 
lations of creation the more difficult becomes the problem of the origin of 
13 



194 E03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE FIVE. 

man, and the purpose in giving him being. With a disposition to be happy, 
he is not. Yearning for an escape from misery, he walks into the valley of 
its shadow throughout his life. When actually the happiest, he is the child 
of a fear that happiness forebodes sorrow. Instead of enjoying health, he 
must guard himself against exposure to disease, which, like a gaunt spectre, 
haunts him at every turn. In disease there is malice and wanton cruelty ; 
and the story of man is an epic of horrors. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCC. 
Double Creation. — I much prefer to believe the Bible, both the Old 
and New Testaments, as to the origin of cruelty to man and his consequent 
misery. Not the traditions of history, but the facts of the world, as stated 
in the Book of Books, are most consonant with the truth as we view it. 
Cain did not marry his sister, and could not have married any person else, 
if creation was not diverse. The race was not, therefore, originated in one 
man and one woman. If God had power to originate the race, Satan was 
either permitted to overcome God's creatures, or else he had a defiant power. 
It is not possible that God permitted the ruin of his creations. The story of 
the misery and suffering of untold millions cannot be ascribed to the doc- 
trine of man's free agency; for, had the first two human beings averted their 
ruin, some descendant ere long would have fallen ; and the downfall of 
the race would have been a foregone conclusion from the si art. All 
through the Old and New Testaments, the assertion of a personal being, the 
arch-enemy of God and man, — is a fixed part of the writings and religion of 
the race. The belief in God stands or falls with those writings ; they must 
be accepted or God must be discarded ; if accepted, no man has a right to 
discard the plain assertion of a personal devil, under the pretense that it is a 
myth, an allegory, or a figure of immorality. A double influence has oper- 
ated in the act of creation. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCI. 
The Father of Devs. — Before accepting the conclusion of this Tome 
as your belief, it is strongly urged upon you to read three times every lesson 
in the Tome. Not only is the assertion of the Bible an absolute theological 



DEVS AND ANGS. 195 

proof of the existence of a Father of Evil, but every fact of man's life and 
the existence which surrounds him, confirms the proof. On no other basis 
can we explain why we are as we are. This proof we shall carry along 
with us in the succeeding Tome. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 
END OF TOME FIVE: 

THE DEVS AND ANGS. 



Special Notice. 

For rules regarding Certificates of Merit, Certificates of Honor, 
Graduation in Philosophy, and the winning of the Great Diploma, as well 
as the attainment of the Degree, see at the end of Tome Ten, the 

RULES OF GRADUATION. 



TOME SIX. 



EVIL. 



LESSON CCCII. 
Preponderance. — Which more abounds in the world, evil or good? 
People who are optimists prefer to believe what they do not know. In your 
answer to this, it is necessary to enter deeply into an examination of the 
facts, and lay feeling aside. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCIII. 
Relation of Evil to Good — The study of the moral side of these 
related principles is necessary to every thinking being. The chief occupa- 
tion of every philosopher and every great man has been the examination of 
the origin of evil and the value of good. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCIV. 

Investigated Facts Evidence of the condition of the world is far 

more important than the proof of argument, or the deductions of reasoning. 
What the world really is, is of far greater importance than what it may be 
or ought to be. " The world is growing better" is often said by those who 
either wish to think so, or who desire to be regarded as charitable and sympa- 
thetic. To arrive at conclusions based upon a knowledge of investigated 
facts, I have, for many years, studied people, and employed others to do so. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCV. 
Ever Present Evil. — The evil which we are now to discuss is not an 
attack upon man by the agencies of an influence which pervades the universe; 
but it is the presence of that influence in and as a part of man himself. In 
the preceding Tome we ascertained that a long and varied array of agencies 
were constantly assailing the life and happiness of man ; and this array 
may be called one of two classes of evil. The second is more serious, 
inasmuch as it constitutes man as a part of that evil itself whose agencies 
attack him. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

(196) 



EVIL. ig? 

LESSON CCCVI. 
Man his own Enemy. — If we consider a human being as that which 
is good, then the evil within is at enmity with the better })art. But if we 
regard him as that which is evil, then the good is his enemy. Thus, in 
accepted theology, the devil hates an angel ; and an angel is incapable of 
hatred ; while both are enemies, each to the other. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCVII. 
Double Man. — Man may, after all, be a double being. If he is the 
outcome of an effort to create goodness, with evil intruding in his makeup ; 
or, if he is a creature of wickedness, with the good sent to save and claim 
him ; or, finally, if he is an incongruous mass of conflicting elements, strug- 
gling for supremacy, each over the other; then he is a double being. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCVIII. 

Creation. — It is important to settle the purpose which caused his 
creation. Of what value is he to the universe? He cannot be the favored 
organism of an all powerful Divinity ; for he is the most unfortunate of 
beings, the unhappiest of creatures, the wickedest of animals. To have 
been created against his will, and then subjected to punishment for violat- 
ing laws which he is not able to understand, is proof positive of the mishap 
of his creation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCIX. 

Incongruities The supernatural horror with which weak minded 

persons approach the discussion of the incongruities of religious tradition, 
does more harm to the cause of right than is easily imagined. God never 
intended to bridle men's thoughts, nor to hood them in ignorance. If religion 
is the supreme law of life, it is superior to all vicissitudes. Men may dis- 
cuss, dissect, abuse and bandy about the most sacred things of God, creation 
and eternity; and , on the principle of moral gravity, that which belongs to 
the top will find its status there without any doubt whatever. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



198 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

LESSON CCCX. 

Associates. — We are unfortunate in our birth, and associated with 
misfortune all through life. We are double beings, at best composed of 
good and bad , weighted with mysteries as to why we were even created, and 
fears as to what our destiny may be. A religion that assumes man to be at 
defiance with his Creator is inhumane. Wherever the source of right may 
be, it pities the misfortune of our creation, and extends only the spirit of 
sympathy to those who err. Under these circumstances every man has the 
privilege of becoming an associate with the influences that control him. He 
defies no being in so doing ; but declares only his intention of dissecting the 
annals related to him of his past. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXI. 
Innate Religion. — All Scriptures are inspired by some degree of 
innate religion, born of man's moral instinct, which is the gift of God. So 
strong is this instinct that, if the human race and its writings were swept 
out of existence a thousand times, there would spring up in as many times, 
a perfected system of religion. If men and atheists to-day had no Bibles 
and no Christianity, every tenth person on the globe would, in the next 
three days, be employed in formulating a code of ethics, and rules for attain- 
ing the blessings of eternal life. This spirit is the foundation and sub- 
stratum of humanity. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXII. 
Fear. — I have no tolerance for the bigotry that pins the right of sal- 
vation to a belief in creeds, doctrines, or inspirations. Innate religion is 
superior to all ; and that excellent thing known as good common sense must 
some day join forces with such religion, and together with it enter upon a 
new crusade against wrong, leaving the posterity of superstitious fear far in 
the rear. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXIII. 

Errors The greatest book in the world is the Bible, whether as a 

religious or a literary work. Too much cannot be said in its favor ; and he 



EVIL. 199 

who attacks it exposes only its humanity. Owing to the fact that many 
marginal notes of earlier copies have been proved to be now in the later 
text, and that errors of translation have caused diverging texts, each equally 
authentic on its face, we are not in a position to accept every line and word 
as infallible ; nor do the scholarly clergymen of any denomination. I once 
heard a well educated preacher quote a text that ninety-nine ministers out of 
every hundred in his denomination well knew it to be spurious; and, on being 
told that such was the case, he shouted : " I accept the Bible as it is, as it 
was taught to me in church and Sabbath-school, as my mother taught it to 
me from her knee ; and, when I come to die, I shall shout for the Bible, 
every chapter, verse, line and word, as I was taught it." His religion is a 
species of that kind which draws to its fold weak men and women, but bars 
out those who would be its abiding strength. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays." at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXIV. 
First Man. — The story of man's origin could not be told without 
myth. If the early account had begun with the point where human history 
properly begins, it would have served the purpose of Holy Writ. A 
mystery so deep as the origin of man, would not be given to the world in 
such an off-hand manner and by such a bungling process of so-called inspira- 
tion. God has wrapped this fact in the deepest mystery ; nor does any 
theological scholar, of whom there are thousands in the church, believe the 
account of creation to be more than a Jewish tradition, which had been told 
from parent to children, for many generations. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXV. 

Beginning of History. — I have carefully examined the whole sub- 
ject, and have collected evidences which are too numerous to be stated here, 
which convince me that the authentic writings of Scripture, commence at a 
certain period after the flood, and not at the so-called first chapter of Genesis. 
This period is at that jilace in the story, where human history properly begins. 
So important do I regard the evidences of this fact that I shall embody them 
in a subsequent work. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



200 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

LESSON CCCXVI. 
Myth. — The theological students either accept the Old Testament as 
Jewish sacred history, or, as an inspired work, except in so far as errors have 
crept in ; but no scholarly preacher believes the account of creation to be 
anything more than tradition, although of so strong a nature as to permeate 
the writings of the Jewish church. I believe that the writings of the Old 
Testament have been added to, over and over again ; and that the tradition 
of Adam was no part of the necessary religious belief of the early Jews. 
The persistency with which ignorant preachers defend everything and anything 
of this kind, drives the best men away from the church. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXVII. 

Living Proof. — Instead of relating the story of the creation of Adam, 
and the taking of his hone to form Eve, the whole narrative would have 
been better stated, by merely asserting that the human race exists, and there- 
fore must have had an origin. The creating of a single pair, the tempting 
of Adam and Eve, the driving of them from the Garden of Eden, unless the 
whole is a typical story, carry discredit on their face, and makes the Creator 
a being of very limited power, and His chief work a failure. It is not 
calculated to convince one of the omniscience and omnipotence of a Supreme 
God. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXVIII. 
Type of Man — A better type of n)an never existed than that which 
lives to-day. Instead of a perfect man in the dawn of the race, and a sub- 
sequent fall, the opposite must be the fact ; for there has been a steady 
aggression of civilization and morality through all the ages. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXIX. 
A Myth Necessary. — It was necessary for some religious leaders, in 
the ages of superstition, to account to their followers for the beginning of 
all things ; so the myth of Adam and Eve was added to Jewish history. 
All peoples have a tradition ; all religions originate in some account of man's 
origin ; and the steps which preceded the birth of human history, and of 
which man could not at any time have had the slightest knowledge, are yet 



EVIL. 201 

included in all their definite details in the primitive chapters of superstition. 
Hence, a myth is the human part of religious history, and is necessary to 
satisfy the cravings of men ; but it offers no solution to the mystery of life, 
nor does it belong to the teachings of religion. 

For Essays on this subject, see '■ Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXX. 
Primitive Failure. — If the myth of Jewish tradition were to be 
translated into a plain statement of facts, the story would be faithfully re- 
peated as follows: God, a being of love, and omnipotent in every act, made 
this beautiful earth and clothed it with all kinds of life, adapted to the use, 
comfort and happiness of man. A portion of the planet w^as furnished in 
an array that paralleled Heaven, and so perfectly adorned in mountain, field, 
garden, lake and stream, that it was beyond speech in its lovliness : so it was 
called paradise. This display of wisdom and power was designed solely for 
the crowning work of creation, — perfect man ! 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXI. 
Human Nature. — The glory of all this effort of millions of years 
came at last, and what was he? A piece of clay as full of human nature 
as any of us. Eve was his wife. Both were contented, happy, joyous, in- 
nocent. Yet Eve committed a sin grave enough to warrant the doom of all 
the millions of the human race that followed; Adam committed a crime 
that branded him as the betrayer of all mankind ; Cain murdered his own 
brother and married his own sister; and Abel, the only preserver of the 
laws of God, was not permitted to live. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten 

LESSON CCCXXII. 
Fallen Man. — It is puerile to argue that fallen man alone was sinful. 
Tlie first two human beings who ever lived, fell immediately, and at the 
very first opportunity. They did not go through the process of being 
tempted, of dallying with sin, of resisting to the last spell, and yielding only 
after a hard struggle ; but they proceeded at once to betray God and obey 
Satan. The whole family were a discredit to the race, and as bad a lot as 
could be found in the dregs of creation ; even Abel not having the alertness 
to defend his life and the religion he represented. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



202 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

LESSON cccxxiir. 

Unity of Religion. — In the name of the best religion that has ever 
been given to mau, — Christianity and its Old Testament support, — I ask 
all who love their fellow beiogs to draw together in one large religious life, 
to unite under one creed, to discard myth and superstition, and to throw out 
of their belief, or demands for belief, the tradition that makes God a faulty 
creator. The line of demarcation is precise, and can be easily perceived. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXIV. 
Factions. — I have led the discussion of DEVS through many pages 
of proof in the preceding Tome, and have indicated by what means I reach 
the conclusion that a special influence of evil is operating somewhere in the 
universe against man's happiness. Had I made the assertion without hav- 
ing offered the train of proof, the conclusion would have been open to dis- 
pute ; for no person has a right to set up claims based upon no apparent 
evidence, even if he is himself convinced of the truth of all that he states. 
There can be no doubt that two influences pervade the earth and solar 
system ; how far beyond they exert their power is not pertinent to this 
present Tome. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXV. 
War in Space. — The evidence furnished by the Atoms of a ray of 
sunshine proves conclusively that there is war beyond the earth. The two 
classes of bacteria, known as DEVS and ANGS, are, even in cold science^ 
considered as evidence of the two influences affecting man's life and safety. 
We shall see in the pages of this Tome, that there are sufficient evidences 
now obtainable to prove the third step, or that man is a combination of the 
two influences. The origin of all this must be the war in space. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXVI. 

Evidences of War in Space. — Accepting the fact, which we shall 
nevertheless proceed to prove, that man is doubly created, or a combination 
of the two influences of good and bad, let us examine the claim that war 
exists in space. In the first place the life of the planet feeds all the life on 



EVIL. 203 

it, and itself is fed by all that comes to it from without and beyond. 
Man is a part of the earth, and the earth is a part of the universe. Evil 
and good are here, but they came from the universe. Man's double nature, 
the counter agencies ever present in growth, and the conflict of Atoms in 
the rays that are pouring upon the earth from the burning sun, are three 
facts, any one of which settles the question of war in space. Nor is there 
any evidence, belief or theory extant among men that contradicts the 
claim. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXVIT. 
Two Influences in the Sun. — No scientist denies that our life comes 
from the sun ; all assert that, if the sun should be blotted from the sky for 
a brief period, all life on this planet would die. We are nourished con- 
stantly by the influences, direct and indirect, which come to us from the 
great center of our system. What we are, then, is of solar origin ; good 
and bad alike. This specific claim is also proved in the analysis of the 
Atomic structure of a ray of sunshine. The Dev- Atoms and Pul- Atoms 
are enemies. If they are enemies on earth, they are in space, and certainly 
in the sun. There is no escape from the conclusion that they represent the 
two influences which compose the sun's life. 

For Essays on this subject, see '' Rules for Essays, " at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON cccxxviir. 

^A^a^ in the Sun. — Astronomers are practically agreed that the sun is 
not a solid mass, nor even molten matter ; but a gas passing through the 
throes of a terrible conflagration, or Atomic conflict. Under some peculiar 
religious instinct, many tribes worship the sun; and, in this, they are prob- 
ably nearer right than civilized man would suppose, while clearly wrong. 
If there are, as there are, two influences coming to us from the sun, and if 
these two influences stand for intelligence, both good and bad, then the two 
master forces of the universe are there engaged in a pitched battle. 

For Essays on this subject, see ''Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXIX. 

God. — I have many reasons for believing that there are two forces in 
the sky, and some evidence pointing to others still. I am satisfied that but 
one God is the author of good ; and, in the lessons of this philosophy, I 



204 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

shall refer to Him as God ; believing in all the attributes ascribed to Him 
in the Old and New Testament. I am equally satisfied that there is a per- 
sonal arch fiend, at defiance with God, having attributes of great power, and 
capable of interfering with His purposes toward man. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXX. 
The Evil One. — Through the remaining Tomes of this philosophy, I 
shall refer to him as the Evil One. He is as much a personalty as God, is 
as spiritual as He and as far related to the material. He is not a force, an 
essence, an operation of law relating to sin and its punishment ; but is as 
real as God Himself. You cannot discard one without discarding the other. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXXI. 
Proof of the Evil One. — Before I shall have finished the lessons of 
this Tome I will prove in many ways the existence of the Evil One. At 
this place it is proper to refer to the conclusions of the Bible, although proof 
from that source is not in the least degree necessary to establish a fact that 
Nature proclaims in all her works. Until a very few years ago, no attempt 
was ever made to abolish the idea of a personal devil. Now it is a floating 
question ; but the drift of the churches is toward the idea that Satan is a 
superstitious fear. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXXII. 

Conscience. — If any fact is stated and re-stated in the Bible with 
convincing clearness, it is the assertion of a personal devil. Of course it is 
more agreeable to those clergymen who prefer to sugar-coat their dogmas, for 
the relish of their parishoners, to believe that Satan is an inward fear, a tinge 
of conscience ; but, in so doing, they disbelieve the Bible, contradict Nature, 
and belie man. A clergyman may be misled by Theological Seminaries, and 
be partly honest in such belief ; but he must lay aside his Bible for all time 
to come. Even the revised version of the Lord's Prayer reads : " Deliver 
us from the Evil One," instead of "from evil;" and the original text leaves 
no doubt upon the matter. The turning and twisting of conscience does 
not satisfy the minds of our most scholarly theologians. I have talked with 



EVIL. 205 

many of them, and find a prevailing belief in the text of the Bible as it is 
written, not as some prefer to interpret it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rviles for Essaj-s," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXXIII. 
Dual Creators. — If it is true that two forces united in the creation of 
man, a single Being did not become responsible for his sinful condition. 
This union in creating was not a harmonious one ; but a conflicting meeting 
of the Atoms, Molecules, DEVS and ANGS, just as we know they exist in 
nature. It was a conglomerate mass of parts, representing two great forces; 
one of good, the other of evil. On no other basis can man be built. No 
other principle explains his dual nature. Taking up the Hebrew text we 
might almost expect to find the statement that not God but the gods created 
man. For centuries, the idea of one God has prevailed in translating the 
old Hebrew text, and the plural word elohim, meaning "the gods," is always 
read as God. It is not possible at this day to translate "gods" to any other 
word than God. The ending " im " in Hebrew is the same as our plural 
" s." Chei'uh is a singular word, cherubim is plural. Seraph is singular, 
seraphim is plural. Elohim is the only word in Hebrew used for the general 
term God ; yet it is singular in English translation, but always plural in 
Hebrew. To one reading the latter text, it is always "the gods created the 
heavens and the earth." Christ on the cross used the singular of this word, 
referring to His Father, the only good God. But Genesis says the (elohim^ 
gods created the heavens and the earth, if we read it in the text in which it 
was written. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the cud of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXXIV. 

Pagan Gods. — In the height of civilization in Greece and Rome, all 
men were not bad. Great minds flourished. Ethics was taught and practiced. 
Yet the greatest of the world's intelligent men lived under a pagan regime, 
and believed in a plurality of gods. No other pathway led to salvation. 
Jove and Jehovah, while not ascribed to the same roots, sounded near each 
other ; one pagan, the other Hebrew. The idea of more than one god is, or 
has been, well nigh universal. Taking man for all in all ; taking the Bible 
as it reads ; taking the world as it is ; there is no conclusion so reasonable, 
so satisfactory, and so Biblical, as that man is the outcome of a war of forces. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



206 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 



LESSON CCCXXXV. 

Sun Battles. — Tracing backward in a succession of facts, it is less 
necessary to theorize. We will not now review this succession, but leave 
that for another line of investigation. The facts of life and Nature all 
point in one direction, like a concentration of roads leading to a central city : 
we are sure that the conflict in man, in Nature, in bacteria, in Atoms, in 
sunshine, originates not here but beyond. A telescope is not necessary to 
tell us that the sun is the seat of a tremendous conflict. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essa3'S," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXXVI. 
Forces Beyond the Sun — Something cannot originate from nothing. 
The sun is but one of millions of similar bodies, all acting independently of 
each other, and all in a kind of harmony. Behind these representative con- 
flicts are forces that cause them. To the eye of man, scanning the field of 
the sky, it seems as if the sun was the author of all that is. Sun-worship is 
far more excusable than image-idolatry, for it is but one step removed from 
the great authors of our being. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXXVII. 
Dual Intelligence — We are not so much the result of a creative hand 
as a part of it. We may be called the result of a conflict, but a part of the 
forces at war. For the time being, we will speak of these forces as two 
intelligences, one good and the other evil. The good leads to a settlement 
of the conflict of the universe, the bad to its opposition. In this war the 
minutest portions of matter are engaged in the purposes of the fight. Thus 
the Atoms of peace seek to deter, drive away and neutralize the power of 
the Atoms of war. The latter oppose that purpose. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXXXVIII. 
Indestructible Matter. — A war of elements must result at first in 
Atomic separation ; or, in other words, must prevent union in molecules and 
subsequent growth. This is the condition of the sun. Not a cell, nor a 
molecule exists there. All matter is reduced to its primary state, its first 
condition. Man is destructible, so are molecules, and all intermediate 
growth; but Atoms can never die. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



EVIL. 207 

LESSON CCCXXXIX. 

Purposeless Atoms There is some reason for believing that the 

Atoms of peace are gradually overcoming the Atoms of war, and reducing 
them to a vegetabJe and mineral state, from which we obtain mechanical 
matter. If this is true it accounts for the lessened condition of life on 
earth, the diminution of food for man, and the more peaceful state of 
civilization. It points two ways : backward to a barbarous })ast, and for- 
ward to a less devilish earth, possibly to angelic man. At the least, it is 
food for thought ; being supported by all discoveries in Science and nature. 
The DEV- Atoms become purposeless in time, as they are robbed of their 
intelligence. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXL. 
Death of Satan. — We shall have occasion to adduce certain proofs 
through well known facts, to show that souls which are not fit for eternal 
peace are destroyed soon after death, their halos or soul shape being disin- 
tegrated and lost, while their Atoms are robbed of their Pul. In an earlier 
work this has been discussed. As Revelation predicts the ultimate destruc- 
tion of the devil, it is not at all uareasonable to assume that the life of man 
is a conflict which is being waged to that end. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXLI. 
Three Facts of the Universe — Accepting the fact that there are 
two intelligences at war in the universe, we are led to inquire how the dis- 
agreement came about, what parties are engaged in the conflict, and what 
was the origin of each. These are profound problems, although the facts 
which warrant the inquiries leave no doubt as to the general nature of the 
answers. There must be a power behind life. It cannot be a single, 
undisturbed power. It may be supreme, yet must be engaged in a battle 
of millions of years' duration, to throw ofl^ a lesser power that, as the 
Bible repeatedly states, is able to thwart its immediate plans. In briefer 
language : there is a power, it is supreme, it is being temporarily opposed. 
All religion, all life, all Nature, teach these three things; and no mind 
denies them or any of them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



208 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

LESSON CCCXLII. 
Extent of Evil. — What the Supreme God is and what the Evil One 
is, belong to the study of Destiny in the last Tome. For the present, let 
us examine the extent of evil in this our life. No new idea can originate 
on earth, or in the mind or heart of man. All is repetition from a far 
broader source. "There is nothing new under the sun" may mean all that 
it says, and includes the greater fact that what is new is from, or from 
beyond, the sun. 

For Essays on this stibject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXLIIL 
Man Invents Nothing. — An invention is merely a discovery. The 
thing supposed to be invented, may be an idea, a process, or a bringing to 
light of a buried fact. We cannot believe that the desire or impulse to kill 
originated in man. It is but the expression of a purpose that has been aiming 
toward its consummation in the life of man for untold years. In the whole 
category of crimes that have infested the reign of the human race since its 
first inauguration, there is not one which man himself has invented, originated, 
or started in operation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXLIV. 

The First War Marshalled in the sky to oppose a reign of peace, 

the hosts of the evil one dared only approach the armies of God on the 
frontier of space. Heaven itself is so far away that we cannot see it. The 
solar system is on the edge of creation, with millions of out-posts beyond, so 
grand is the architecture of space. It is here that the evil one dare make 
his battles. To protect the courts of Heaven, the armies of God have met 
the array of evil far from the central gates of creation. The armies are 
Atoms, for the reason that has been stated. Each Atom is an intelligent 
representation, charged with a purpose, good or bad. The very fact of 
meeting involves concentration and immediate conflict. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXLV. 
Origin of the Suns. — The intense activity in a sunbeam, which we 
call heat, and which is capable of destroying the blood corpuscles in man, 
or sun-stroke as it is called, present the faintest possible idea of the con- 



EVIL. 209 

flagration now operating in the great orb of fire itself. That war is the 
meeting of the two armies of the sky. Their meeting is the fire which we 
call the sun. In no other way could the sun have originated. As the battle 
progresses the Atoms are scattered through space in the form of sunbeams 
which agitate all AE. The latter is the network of good Atoms which con- 
nect every orb of the sky with Heaven, and God with man. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXLVI. 
Earth is a Reflection of Other Life. — As we are, what we are, why 
we are, the forces of mind and matter must answer. The problem which 
most concerns us is how far we are responsible for our destiny ; how far our 
crimes are ours ; and what choice we have in the matter of sin and its 
results. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXLVII. 

Man and Evil. — The Evil One did not create us ; God did not create 

us. We are a combination of the essential life of each ; the aggregation of 

opposing influences, not the union of any. Which is superior is an open 

question ; which may become supreme is the only leading inquiry of life. 

No man can afford to relegate to the rear, a problem that more materially 

affects his earthly success than any other ; not to speak of happiness here or- 
hereafter. 

For Essays on this subject, see 'Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXLVILL 
Supremacy of Evil. — A subject that might well employ a thousand 
men to investigate, had, years ago, instigated me to seek the aid of others to 
collect facts and obtain evidences, calculated to shed light on man's nature. 
Is he in the possession of the Evil One, in whole or in part ? The facts of 
history are respectable proof of the surface nature of humanity. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON^ CCCXLIX. 

Man's Surface Nature — The outer appearance of so complex a being 
is decidedly against him. First, there is Jewish history. The good men 
are few in number; and, considering the fact that less than one person in a 
million is mentioned, and the majority of those mentioned are not good ex- 

14 



210 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03JE SIX. 



amples of virtue or morality, the retrospect is bad in the extreme. That 
the masses reeked in sin and crime may be learned from the following words 
from the sixth chapter of Genesis, commencing with the fifth verse : 

5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, 
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
continually. 

6. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and 
it grieved him at his heart. 

7. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from 
the face of the earth ; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the 
fowls of the air ; for it repententh me that I have made them. 

Here we see a connection between the DEV-life of beasts and fowls, 
and that of man ; the former being a step in the process of the latter. 
After the race was destroyed, and a new one had spread over the earth, the 
wickedness of Sodom stood as a type of new man. The favored good man, 
Lot, with his wife and two daughters, furnish a study similar to the first 
quartette of beings. We have seen that Adam and Eve were traitors and 
heretics of the most wretched type, that Abel was not capable of sustaining 
the religion confided in him, and that Cain was a murderer. Now we learn 
that the second quartette of favored humanity was worse. Lot's wife com- 
mitted a sin that was severe enough to result in the forfeiture of her life ; 
Lot was a drunkard, and, with his two daughters, committed the horrible 
crime of incest, resulting in the birth of two bastard children. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCL. 
Humanity of Religious History. — The one fact which most stamps 
the Old Testament as a reliable and highly authentic book of records, is its 
marvellous human nature. It presents no polish of sentiment to cover the 
moral putrefaction of men, but goes to the sub-stratum of degredation, 
throws the filth to the surface, and allows the stench to permeate the atmos- 
phere of time. Had it painted man as a moral being, it would have encased 
him in a shell that must have coffined his nature ; and stamped the impres- 
sion of falsity on all history. No book ever written has so faithfully 
presented man as he is, as has the grand old history of the Jewish religion, 
tradition and all. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



EVIL. 211 

LESSON" CCCLF. 

War If two beings occupied this planet, and had no companions, 

they would sooner or later discover one another. Broad as the earth is, they 
would be interested in each other's possessions, and take an inventory of the 
things that seem to be greater sources of happiness or comfort, than those 
belonging to the allotted domain of each. These things would be coveted, 
not because they are in fact better, but because they seem so, and therefore 
excite the desire to have them. Until the evil that is born in man's nature 
is taken out, there could be no adjustment of possessions. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLTI. 
The Social Problem. — We hear continually of what is called the 
social problem, and the demand for the re-adjustment of society, so that it 
may rest on the basis of equality. Such a problem is rooted in the construc- 
tion of man's life, and even the life of the earth. Two trees are not capable 
of equal growth, side by side, even under the same material advantages ; yet 
trees are of gentle disposition, and types of peace and good will. The earth 
is not large enough for any two persons. Even if all the comforts of life 
were distributed with equal favors, the dispute as to the size of the territorial 
possessions would precipitate war. The sun never sets on the British posses- 
sions, while Russia has more territory than she can rule ; yet the law of fear 
keeps them from further encroachments. There is no way of reforming the 
social relations until you reform the nature of man. Take away the evil 
which constitutes a part of his construction, and the good will assert itself 
by desiring to give rather than Lake property and rights. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX CCCLIII. 
National Crimes. — A nation is an aggregation of evil influences, in- 
spired by fear. "In union there is strength." It is not the strength of 
good, or for good, but a combination of force intended to overpower a 
similar conibination ; perhaps for the purpose of conquest, or suppression of 
enemies, or to secure happiness and freedom ; in either case it is created to 
operate against an enemy, and through fear. National government is a 
union of social elements, prompted by fear. This accumulation of strength 
is never reasonable. All history shows that a nation desiring the property 



212 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

of a lesser power, and being able to take it, will never hesitate to do so. In 
modern times the most civilized nations do this under the plea of advancing 
the cause of morality or education ; one incident of the conquest being the 
acquisition of wealth, taken without exchange, from the unfortunate party. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLiy. 

Horrors of War. — What was the moral condition of the men as indi- 
viduals, who invaded the territory of weaker tribes, may be presumed; 
their national cruelty is well established. The conquered parties were often 
unprepared for war ; they tilled the soil, planted, sewed and reaped ; had 
homes ; were virtuous and relatively moral ; worshipped as best they knew ; 
yet the civilized Romans landed, without warning, upon their soil ; debauched 
their women ; killed their fathers, husbands and brothers, for the mere sake 
of seeing the red blood flow, and agony pinch their faces ; and took 
back to Rome the best of their unwilling foes, to spend a life in torture. 
What was it in the nature of man which prompted this national crime? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLV. 
Cruelty of Women. — We speak of women as gentle; so she is, if a 
condition or circumstance appeals to her ANG-nature. But history, national 
and social, depicts the cruelty of women in blacker and more tempestuous 
colors than the average fiend of man deserves ; though both are bad enough. 
What prompted tradition to place the fall of man at the foot of women ? 
Why are the wicked women of Jewish history guilty of all the crimes 
enumerated in the penal code of the modern world ? The daughter of the 
Roman emporer who deliberately drove her chariot over the body of her 
father, bursting the flesh and spattering upon her robes the very blood that 
had given her life, was a type of woman that has lived in all ages. How 
much of bad and how little of good there is in the one combination of the 
two warring forces of life which is called an individual, depends upon the 
proportions of matter that preceding generations may have acquired ; or it 
may be the outgrowth of one life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



EVIL. 213 

LESSON CCCLVI. 

Extremes of Morality — A man is more just than woman ; and, on 
the moral side, more consistent. He is either a preponderance of good, or 
of evil. Woman is swayed by the circumstances that enact her daily 
history; now good when her dormant devil is not influencing her; now 
fiendish in the extreme. I have seen a coarse-grained, ngly, repulsive 
female, take her last loaf to an unfortunate girl, and, with hunger gnawing 
at her life, feed it to one of misery's offspring ; while the next month she 
strapped her drunken husband to a wall, and left him to die in agony. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essaj'S," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CJCCLVII. 

Envy. — I investigated a case of a woman who was, above all others, 
supposed to be docile, sweet and humane. Her face was that of one who 
had lived a half century. Its contour was regular, and even beautiful ; the 
soft, white lines indicating refinement, peace and philanthropy. One day 
she appeared in a dress of beautiful texture, that far outshone her neighbor's. 
In this distinction she seemed proud. The neighbor at once proceeded to 
equalize the social unevenness of the case, and soon had a dress of greater 
value and beauty. The sweet, pale-faced lady at once became chagrined, 
and sought revenge. As she afterwards stated, a different being took pos- 
session of her. Her mind was never clouded, though her judgment was ; 
but her moral nature simply gave itself up to the Evil One, who proceeded 
to overturn, by one act, the record of a lifetime. She resolved to get rid of 
the dress; and, knowing that the possessor could and would replace it, she 
made an assault upon her life ; not by open and ordinary methods, but by 
procuring and caging a venomous reptile, whose sting meant a death of 
agony. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLVIII. 
Duration of Morality — It is a presumption of life that the longer 
a person is moral, the less likely he is to become immoral. Nevertheless, the 
DEV-Atoras are in his nature, circulating through his blood, and that they 
possess the power to take possession of him is too well established to be in 
dispute. The case of Judas Iscariot has been cited as that of one who had 



214 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME SIX. 

been respected and moral up to a given period of his life; and then the 
influence of the Evil One became concentrated in his nature and overturned 
the life time of good. There are unlimited examples of men and women 
who have suddenly been overcome and have gone to the bad. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLIX. 

Slavery — There is no species of tyranny so despotic as that of the 
Evil One. Man, to be a free moral agent, must be without temptation. A 
girl is not free who is solicited day by day, and allured by every color of 
fascination to depart from what she instinctively knows to be right. 
Freedom of choice between sin and purity must be as absolute as the 
impartiality of a judge. What would you say of the child who was con- 
stantly coaxed to make a selection of a certain thing, while being told that 
it must make up its mind freely as between two things? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLX. 
Crime is an Impulse. — It often happens that the mind acts without 
deliberation; yet slowly and cautiously. It is not the operation of dethroned 
reason or temporary insanity; but a lapse of mental realization of the 
thing to be done. A cashier had been for days making careful preparation 
for a trip to Canada, with a sufficient amount of the bank's money to enable 
him to live comfortably for the rest of his life. By some accident he was 
suspected and watched. At the last moment a bank official, a friend of his, 
intercepted his departure. "Do you A;now; what you are doing?" The cashier 
said he did not ; for weeks his mind had been in a daze, although in normal 
health. I have no doubt that more than half the crimes of men are com- 
mitted while the moral nature is in a state of vacuity : crimes not intended, 
and most bitterly repented. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXI. 

Crime-mania. — The woman who steals from the shop counter things that 

she will never need, cannot be called insane; although, judged by the rules 

of mental derangement, it would seem that the stealing of a ribbon worth 

fifty cents, by a person of great wealth, is evidence of unsound mind. It 



EVIL. 215 

is probably a moral vacuity, caused by an inward influence ; or a convolution 
of the brain peopled by DEV- Atoms. The wealthy woman is not punished ; 
as her affluence is proof in court of her lack of criminal motive; yet there 
are thousands of unfortunates who linger in jail to-day for misdemeanors 
committed while under the influence of crime-mania. We do not claim 
that they should go unpunished; for the safety of the general public 
demands that they be separated from the rest of mankind. Yet it is hard 
to deal harshly with them. No doubt long before the case has come to court 
the offender has awakened from his moral lapse, and asks himself the ques- 
tion : "Why did I do it?" 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CXC^LXII. 

Effect of Punishment. — Three classes of persons may come under the 
penalties of the law : those who are instinctively criminal, those who suffer a 
moral lapse, and the insane. No highly civilized community ever seeks to 
punish the insane ; the policy is to care for them, while protecting society. 
It is, however, undoubtedly the fact in not very remote periods that they were 
executed and thus disposed of. To-day, when a high official is struck down, 
the plea of insanity becomes an unpopular defense, affecting judge, jury 
and experts ; and the assassin is executed. Men who have studied the effect 
of the knowledge that a crime by the insane is punishable, are of the 
opinion that the reason is not often so completely overthrown as to not appre- 
ciate the danger of crime. This is illustrated in certain localities where 
juries are notoriously opposed to a plea of insanity as a defense to a charge 
of crime. The decrease of insanity is noticeable. 

For Essays on this sutjject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXIII. 

Deterrence. — It is not easy to account for the connection between fear 
of punishment and deterrence from crime ; unless we accept the theory that 
' a cautious intelligence is at work in the non-mental life of the insane, and 
that the Evil One is thus guarded. A wild beast who killed a human being 
while the latter slept, did not know the difference between right and wrong; 
and on this principle we determine the moral responsibility of a man who 
kills. If he has as little intelligent conception of his act as the wild beast, 



216 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

he is called insane. Yet it is certain that repeated punishment for a crime 
will deter the beast, and the insane. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXIV. 

Kleptomania. — Most clearly is this principle seen in cases of klepto- 
mania. The wife of a wealthy merchant had a mania for stealing handker- 
chiefs, which she did so cleverly as to avert detection for a long time. 
When discovered she was told that if she did it again, she would be publicly 
prosecuted in the police court. This had no effect, except for a brief time. 
Four more commissions of theft were subsequently discovered, showing that 
the threat had little influence on her. Finally, under the advice of a physi- 
cian, she was arrested and convicted in court. The disgrace was so effectual 
that the kleptomania subsided. Four other instances of the same kind have 
come to my notice. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXV. 

Moral Insanity. — There is little if any doubt but that the certainty of 
punishment has reduced the crimes which the insane are prone to commit. 
I suppose that if the criminal law were to make every kind of killing of a 
human being, except in self-defense, punishable by death, the decrease in 
mental derangement would be marked ; and murders by the insane would 
fall off eighty per cent. The question is well worth considering. I talked 
with a young man who had killed his wife and her sister. He admitted that 
the knowledge of safety from punishment assured to the insane, had preyed 
upon his mind until it had brought on a temporary derangement, during 
which he committed the deed. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXVI. 
Is Crime a Disease ? — The mind is a most delicate instrument, capable 
of enduring but little strain in some instances. The judgment is never per- 
fect, for this instrument is not in absolute poise. At times the good sense 
that we are so proud of, leaves us ; and we commit some blunders, in the 
more serious cases ; or errors of judgment in lesser instances. There can be 
no doubt that the devil catches us at such times, probably having lain in 
wait for these favorable opportunities. Under a severer strain the reason 



EVIL. 217 

may be completely overthrown. Yet it is not the fact that ordinary crime 
is a mental disease, so much as a moral deficiency. In typhoid fever and 
similar ailments the blood is attacked by DEVS, or bacterial enemies ; in 
mental disease the mind is out of poise ; in moral disease the intelligence of 
DEV-Atoms is in control of the machinery of mind and body. Much of 
that which experts determine to be insanity is the influence of evil which 
dwells within a man. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules Cor Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXVIL 

Revenge. — If crime is a disease, the word "revenge" must be Avritten 
over the pages of life and history, and the clearance judgment, "not re- 
sponsible," placed in blood-red ink across the text. We do not realize what 
this word includes, nor how much of human action is due to its inspiration. 
It may require years of living, with limited experience ; or less time and 
more knowledge of humanity ; to enable one to gauge the horrible expanse 
of this cloud over the moral nature of man. From the child of tender judg- 
ment to the man or woman of mature years, I do not believe the DEV- 
influence, called revenge, is entirely lacking in the heart. Where we feel 
most sure that it does not dwell, the proper stimulus will call it into activity. 

For Essays on this suljjeet, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXVIII. 

Enmity. — The man or woman who says " I have no enemies," is either 
worthless or inactive. There is a vital dearth. The least moving about 
will raise up foes ; success makes bitter enemies; while failure leaves only 
the sting. A person who undertakes to go through life with a good word 
for everybody, and surrounded by an unbroken halo of friendship, knows 
not how slight a thing may make the best companion a foe. If you treat 
all well, some one will be jealous for not being preferred. If you are 
uniformly kind, some ugly spirit receiving only that treatment which he is 
accustomed to expect, will become vicious because of no better treatment. 
Your ill-nature may help to make enemies ; but the moral condition of your 
foes has more to do with their bitterness toward you than has your own 
conduct. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



218 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

LESSON CCCLXIX. 

Fiendishness. — There is often no limit to the aggressiveness of revenge. 
The woman who threw vitriol into the face of a young man's sister, and dis- 
figured her for life, thinking that she was some new sweetheart of his, and 
therefore her rival, was set down as a fiend. Some said she was possessed of 
the devil; a very homely way of stating that her evil spirit was prominent 
at the time she threw the vitriol. I have accounts of over thirteen hundred 
cases of vitriol throwing, by women in the United States, in the last twenty- 
five years; all of them totally unjustifiable, and fiendishly atrocious. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXX. 
Strikes. — In a recent strike a workman's wife was teaching the Sabbath 
school lesson of the coming Sunday to her child; and moralizing upon the 
wickedness of hating; when the street suddenly became alarmed by the 
approach of strangers. They were called "scabs," and the strikers sprang 
upon them like tigers. The women joined in the affray, urging their husbands 
and sons to kill the strangers. The wife referred to came on the scene with 
a kettle of boiling water; and, while the infuriated demons held the men, 
she proceeded to pour the scalding water down their backs, deaf to the 
screams of the sufferers. The strangers proved to be her relatives, who had 
come to the town to find her, and share some of their good fortune with her. 
The strikes of the past have done much to acquaint the world with the 
malice, revenge and fiendish hatred dwelling in the hearts of women. They 
have thirsted for blood and incited to murder on the least provocation. The 
Evil One is not in them but a part of them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXL 

Recklessness. — When the good is in control, the man or woman is 
ordinarily lovable. When the impulse comes and the evil is ascendant, there 
is often a recklessness of action which takes into account no after effect, 
except that of personal safety. The devil seems inclined to help on the 
destruction of the soul and body of a human being. The first instinct of 
an animal, when about to attack, is personal safety. The tiger in the jungle 
of India never leaps for its prey without carefully measuring the proba- 
bilities; and if the leap is unsuccessful, he sneaks away without a second 



EVIL. 219 

trial. When the young of cattle is the object of the assault, the herd form 
a ring around it, with their heads and horns outward. The tiger leaps over 
the barrier, snatches the prey, and leaps out with it. He will not make the 
leap, unless he has estimated the distance, and made up his mind that it can 
be accomplished. So in human beings the same class of cunning and 
caution always prevails; and beyond it few criminals ever calculate. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXII. 

Cunning. — The stealth that is allied to crime is of the lowest animal 
origin. Annals of crime show that the greatest intellectual shrewdness is 
found in the weakest minds. A person unfamiliar with the habits of the 
negro would be easily misled by their perfect assumption of innocence; 
and many a detective has been out-generaled by the guilelessness of the weak- 
minded Chinese. Some birds will fly flutteringly away from their nest, as 
if going to it, and lead the hunter in the wrong direction. The bear-cub 
will go sound to sleep apparently, when strangers approach, and as soon as 
the intruder is within strikiug distance, the cub will spring out of its sleep, 
without warning. A man on the verge of a crime is capable of the utmost 
innocence. A woman who was about to poison her sick husband, chided the 
nurse for leaving the dangerous medicine in the room for fear it might be 
given to the invalid by mistake. The world well knows of the habits of 
animals and men in the line of low cunning. This shows that the intelli- 
gence of brutes and human beings is of the same order when influenced 
by the spirit of cunning; and that the DEVS of both S])ecies are clannish 
by nature. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXII r. 
Seven Years' Period of Crime. — Any person who will study self for 
a while will be surprised at the periodical return of a criminal tendency. 
In France it is accepted as a fact that crime is more abundant in the nation 
as a whole, and in the individual, in alternating periods of seven years ; the 
first period of childhood being either vicious or good, the next the opposite, 
and so on ; the mother's moral character being supposed to predominate in 
the first period. How far all these claims may be true, it is hardly of suf- 



220 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

ficient importance to determine, except in so far as self-study may be a 
necessity. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXiy. 
Renewal of the Body. — The popular idea has been for many years, 
that the body sheds its tissues every seven years. In very active organisms 
the entire body is renewed in much less time ; while a very lazy person 
would carry some of the same tissues for many years longer than seven. It 
may be that there is an average of that number of years ; but the only fact 
of value is the renewal of the general structure, elements and Atoms of the 
body; giving to man the opportunity for building of better material. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXV. 
Food and Crime. — What a man eats makes him what he is in body, 
mind and soul. His body may be ruined by a singleness of food elements, 
as, for instance, white-bread alone. His mind is also the tool of the stomach. 
To prove this, feed your over-smart fellow on rice and thin milk for six 
months. He will not be able to study, to think, to exercise judgment ; but 
will have a desire to sleep twenty hours out of twenty-four ; although the 
health of the body will not be affected. If you cannot get sleep at night, 
try the rice diet. The soul is likewise the slave of the stomach. This is a 
broad statement ; but it is capable of proof. Feed any ten persons you may 
select, on hog meat, with little other food, except bread and potatoes, and, 
in a few years, you will find them possessed of selfish, filthy and low animal 
natures. Feed dog meat, uncooked but highly seasoned, as in red-meat 
sausages, to ten moral persons for two years ; at the end of the time you 
will have a class that no Sunday-school influences could affect. The moral 
status would be bestial ; and if soul-status is allied to or dependent upon the 
moral condition, the food that goes into the stomach has much to do with 
the education of that nobler being. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXVL 
Growth. — It becomes the duty of every person who professes to live 
for a better life, to study the processes of growth going on in the body, and 



EVIL. 221 

the changes that accompany the constant renewal of its parts. In this 
growth, and in these changes, lies the possibility of ennobling the flesh, the 
mind and the soul by clean food and pure elements. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX CCCLXXVII. 
Transmitting Crime. — It is quite well understood that the man of 
vicious tastes as to food and drink will transmit vicious seed to his off-spring. 
Measured by a moral code, such a person should not be permitted to marry 
or to transmit his seed, but the time is not now, and may never be, ripe for 
the prevention of crime by the castration of criminals. The absorbent 
tendencies of men and women must necessarily be sent down to the next 
generation. The amalgamation of the good elements, as indicated in the 
'* Ideal City," might some day present moral strength sufficient to prevent 
the transmission of crime from criminals to their offspring. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXVIII. 

Slum-life. — Go to the slums of New York, or to parts of Hoboken, 
Jersey City and Brooklyn. The fearful images of men and women, of which 
there are at least five hundred thousand in the places named, appal the brain 
of one who might try to think well of mankind. These people are not 
foreigners, but natives ; they multiply rapidly in a vermin-like manner, and 
with as little love between the offspring and parent. As children they are 
knocked about, with not only none of that moral culture which is necessary 
to make them citizens, but they represent an accumulation of bestial degrada- 
tion that the generations of the last seventy years have been developing. 
They are not yet a problem, for the breadth of the country has been assimi- 
lating them for some time, without modifying their evil influences. The 
devil has been, and is, at work on the vitals of the best nation that ever 
existed. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXIX. 

National Bacteria. — Every large city is a crime, — a national off'ence. 
Sodom was the representative of this species of crime. I recently passed 
and re-passed several times through the city of Naples in Italy. The 
masses of humanity that reek in the putrid licentiousness, dishonesty, and 



222 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 



filth of that great city cannot be classed as human beings, without insulting 
the men and women who have lived for the purity of home and the religion 
of morality. The face of a cur is quite different from that of a decent dog. 
The countenance is not a false sign. When every respectable line in the 
features is turned awry, and the looks betray the desire to murder at the first 
favorable opportunity, the acclamation that pronounces man the noblest of 
animals, falls dead from the lips. We have learned that the human body is 
infested by DEVS, or bacteria that are incubating and accumulating, await- 
ino- the time when, by numbers from without joining those within, the forces 
will be sufficient to overwhelm life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXX. 
Fate of Cities. — The type of destiny that awaits the great cities of 
the earth, is clearly portrayed in the DEVS of the body. These should be 
carefully studied, in order to see the duplex life that lays the foundation of 
destruction. In any contagion, debility within must coincide with the assault 
from without. Thus, the cholera germs may be swallowed freely by a 
person of robust health. No one need fear any infection, if the general 
vitality of the body is normal. In order to succumb to disease, there must 
have been in the tissues of the flesh, an army of DEV- Atoms quietly at work, 
undermining the walls of the cells, and sapping the resisting strength of the 
body. Then the DEVS themselves enter, in the form of bacteria, the 
enemies unite, and the great citadel of life is leveled to the earth. So the 
great cities of the earth have perished. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXI. 
History of Cities. — No city that ever fell, — and what one has not? — 
has failed to succamb to their influences. Athens suffered from bacterial 
energies within, which made the assaults upon her from without more swift 
and deadly. Rome was overrun by her northern foes, but only after the mob- 
bacteria had sapped her vitality ; nor was the mob-DEV necessary, for such 
rulers as Nero and Commodus were but products of the same vermin, and 
were capable of rendering the body-politic inert against the bacteria from 
without. Paris has twice succumbed to this loathesome disease ; and is 



EVIL. 223 

to-day carrying in her entrails the most virulent bacteria, whose toxine poison 
is in the moral sentiment of all classes. For some years these species of 
DEVS have been drifting America-ward ; and, by the slow but steady pro- 
cess of incubation, have been accumulating numbers and energy. They are 
born only in large cities; they often wear white shirts, and call themselves, 
well-dressed, but never respectable. They are the offspring of alcohol- 
DEVS, and their blood relation to these fellows is the only tie of affiliation, 
affection or love that can germinate in their breasts. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXir. 
Towns and Crime. — A walk through the slums of any great city will 
show you who and what these bacteria are. None of them are possible in 
villages or towns ; for there they will not grow. A large city is not only a 
crime against the nation of which it forms a part, but is also a destroyer of 
homes and family ties, both in and out of itself, a hiding place for criminals, a 
garden of disease, and a monument to the selfishness of man. I do not 
believe that the way to Heaven lies through or from a large city. To claim 
that business honesty and social purity are possible in such a place, is but 
the utterance of a pallid sentiment, generally hurled with indignation against 
one who asserts the facts in the case. The building of villages, towns and 
cities after the plan suggested in our "Ideal City," will be strongly urged; 
for the largest of them will not be great enough to admit city bacteria 
within its area. 

For Essays on this subject, see '• Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXIIL 
Heredity in Crime. — If you will study the faces of the classes called 
"toughs" in large cities, and they are of all ages from infancy to senility, 
you will wonder why an intelligent government permitted these bacteria to 
be born. It is not any man's right to kill them; nor is it the duty of 
government to do as the more enlightened (in this respect) pagans of the 
Ganges did, — destroy their children. The right and ability to propagate 
should be destroyed. Some years ago a body of physicians investigated this 
proposition, and reported it as both humane and desirable. One doctor 
differed only as to the degree of the operation ; suggesting that for the first 
offence involving moral turpitude, half castration should be the penalty ; for 



224 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOWIE SIX. 

the second offence, complete castration. The dangers to life and health were 
carefully estimated and deemed but slightly possible. I wish to have our 
students in philosophy discuss the question. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXIV. 
Self-knowledge of Crime. — It is an easy matter to exclaim in an 
ebullition of zeal, "I am but a poor sinner;" but to believe it, and to act 
upon the belief, are somewhat harder matters. Yet there is in one person 
in every two a decided tendency, not merely to sin, but to commit crimes. 
This is born in them, and hovers like a cloud over their lives. I cannot 
help believing what so many have declared, that their chief brooding in their 
penitentiary homes was over the injustice that instigated the commission of 
crimes which they did not try to commit, but were driven to by the impulse 
within. A clergyman told me that a man of thirty joined his church, and for 
years lived a very exemplary life ; but one day came hurriedly to his house 
and exclaimed, " I am in trouble ; I have not done any wrong, but I was 
born of criminal parents and am under the influence of a desire to do evil." 
His mind was perfectly sound, but the dog-meat of crime lurked in his 
flesh. By agreement, when the impulse was active, he was given a com- 
panion who, like a good angel, walked with him through the valley of his 
tribulation. If more Christians would do this for their fellow-men, life 
would not hang so like a pall over the hearts of the unfortunate. If good 
men will commence to cvit off the propagation of crime at its fountain-head, 
criminal parents, and then walk more with the unfortunate, the world may 
be made better. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXV. 
Grades of Crime. — There are laws which proclaim the crimes which 
are considered penal in the nation's eye; but there are offences which are 
not punishable by law, yet represent greater moral turpitude than any of the 
others. The man who sells alcohol DEVS, and the man who drinks them ; 
the murderer of reputation; and the scandal monger who writes or pub- 
lishes a so-called newspaper, are criminals in the sense that they are dis- 
honest in their souls, and a lie on the face of creation. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 



EVIL. 225 

LESSON CCCLXXXVI. 

Alcohol-DEVS — Nothing new can be said on a subject that is the 
source of soreness to everybody. It is simply a part of the evil that is 
arrayed against the life and happiness of man. The bacteria-growth that 
changes the grain to the ferment, and the spore separation that follows the 
ferment, are disguises of evil in the form of DEVS, designed to achieve 
the downfall of as many of the race as may be induced to sacrifice purity 
of flesh for pleasure. I know that there is a sentiment in favor of the use 
of alcohol ; and I know that men whose mixed constitution predominates in 
favor of DEVS and who are under the control of the Evil One, burst open 
with indignation at the persecution of those who sell alcohol-DEVS ; yet 
the fact remains that the traffic is purely of the devil, by the devil, and for 
the devil. You may commence with the growth of the grain, and follow 
its history with the microscope until it enters the brain of man ; and you 
will see the evidences of the truth of this assertion. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXVII. 
The Alcohol Drinker. — Physiology tells us that the body of the 
babe is a miniature collection of the traits of its ancestors. The drinking 
of alcohol-DEVS is making a bonded warehouse of the body, wherein are 
stored bacteria, spores, and general DEVS, to become an accumulation of 
venom for future action. The first glass, plants only a few millions, it is 
true ; but these keep up au agitation for further affiliation, and others 
must come. After several permanent colonies are planted, a general cry 
goes up for "More DEVS!" — "More DEVS!" throughout the whole 
body. This thirst is designed by Satan to grow on itself, without hope of 
decrease, until the victim is prepared for the loss of his soul. By experi- 
ments mentioned later on, it has been determined that a drinker is incapable 
of forming a soul fitted for Heaven. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXVIIL 

Natural Good — The best temperance lecture I ever knew, was the 
advertisement of a manufacturer who established a large business in a town, 
and advertised for five hundred workmen, "beer and liquor drinkers need 
not apply." He made a temperance town of one that was quite the opposite. 

15 



226 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

I learn that nine business men out of every ten refuse to employ beer or 
liquor drinkers. This position, as soon as it is made unanimous, and it is 
practically so now, will quickly separate men into two classes, — the decent^ 
and the DEV-drinkers. Thus that principle, which is known as natural 
good, aids the accomplishment of a high moral end. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCLXXXIX. 
Wealth and Honesty. — It is quite common for the poor to assert, 
that no person can honestly make a fortune ; owing to competition, and the 
necessity for shrewdness in order to trade successfully. In discussing the 
philosophy of honesty with their scholars, many Sunday-school teachers 
take the broad ground that it is proper to "put the best foot forward," and 
not deception. The young minds of boys and girls are lead to regard it as 
not only proper but a necessary duty, for merchants to show their best 
samples, to put the large apples at the top of the barrel, the sound and 
attractive strawberries over the small ones, and the nice things in front of 
the bad. A certain deacon who keeps a large grocery, so arranges his 
potatoes as to keep the best, largest, cleanest on the visible side of the pile, 
while the small and inferior ones are concealed, and are sold to customers. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXC. 
Slight Dishonesty. — At this place we are not to discuss the rule of 
honesty ; but wish merely to call attention to the quiet and insidious ways 
in which the spirit of evil obtains a foothold in the conduct of men accredited 
with holy lives. As soon as the mind is made up to the belief that it is 
right to sell inferior goods on the appearance of the best, the only remaining 
step toward actual dishonesty is the statement that "the goods run about as 
you see them." There is but one road in the life of rectitude, and it is the 
straightest line that the mind can conceive. If the best apples are on top,^ 
say so. A grocer who says, " This is not a fair sample of the fruit, the best 
are on top for looks," will never lack for trade, as he will have the confidence 
of his customers. It does not excuse a man, because he thinks the public 
are quite familiar with the custom of deceiving. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



I 



EVIL. 227 

LESSON CCCXCI. 
Honest Affluence. — Many people who have acquired wealth have 
been honest in doing so, while the majority have not. I knew a lady who 
was urged to teach six young ladies at her home in a city. The next year 
she had a class of twenty. In ten years she was the principal of her own 
seminary with a very large annual income ; and, to-day, is wealthy. The 
only dishonesty probably practiced by her is in allowing the young ladies to 
graduate in a "popular" way; that is, by not acquiring an actual education. 
It is very unpopular to compel a girl to study or think hard in a seminary 
course. Yet this slight dishonesty did not affect the accumulation of a 
fortune. In the building up of great wealth, even where there has been 
general honesty, it is possible to find the process of growth tinged with hues 
and tints of deception that seemed to come as a matter of course. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXCII. 
The Policy of Honesty. — In an age of universal malice and trickery 
the influence of a man known to be honest and not stupid, is widespread and 
permanent. Such a man could get more for his goods and would hold a 
fixed patronage longer than any of his competitors. An honest lawyer of 
reasonable ability would never suffer for business; an honest doctor of skill 
would be overrun. In some kinds of business there is no opportunity for 
integrity, as in liquor selling, stock-gambling, journalism, and politics. 
The principle of " honor among thieves" is the usual standard of these 
classes. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXCIII. 
Evil is not a Blind Force. — We have elsewhere stated that any oper- 
ation of vital Nature that may be turned to man's good, is a blind force ; 
and death occurring from such operation would not be chargeable to an evil 
intelligence. Thus a falling stone which kills the person beneath it, is but 
the operation of gravity, a law that is essential for the life of man. Thei •' 
are many non-malicious forces in Nature. Evil, however, is not such; it is 
always intelligent, and often intellectual. No scientist ever watchfd the 
movements of the deadly bacteria without pausing to reflect on the mental 
acuteness displayed in their mode of living. All instinct is intelligence. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



228 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

LESSON CCCXCIV. 
Intelligence and Intellect. — These two words, both from the same 
root, mean different things. The sap of the tree has intelligence ; also 
vegetation, from the cell to the gigantic elm, is an aggregation of intelli- 
gence. This division of life can never be called intellectual. The latter 
term cannot be denied to many species of the animal kingdom. While the 
vegetable growth obeys an intelligent force as an aggregate, its cells show 
intellect of a very keen order. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXCV. 
Difference Between Animal and Vegetable Intellect — The latter 
as an aggregation of cells, shows intelligence in itself, and obeys a law 
higher than itself ; but its cells are individually greater in intellectual 
forces than the growth of the vegetation. This is due to the presence of 
so many Pul-less Atoms ; which, later on, we shall show to be DEV- Atoms 
deprived of their purpose. On the other hand there are no dead Atoms in 
flesh ; for as soon as they are deprived of their Pul, and become material 
only, they are thrown off to feed the life of vegetation. This fact has been 
known for centuries, and written of in one way and another. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXCVI. 
Flesh is Intellectual. — Whether a thing of flesh can reason or not 
cannot be hastily decided. It is often stated that man differs from an 
animal in that he possesses the faculty of reasoning, and of logical deduc- 
tions; which faculty is denied the animals. A question of this profundity 
should be carefully examined and investigated before declaring it to be 
settled. It is true that we are not the same order of reasoning beings as 
animals ; but the gulf that spans the difference in species shuts out all real 
knowledge of the mental operations within. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXCVII. 
Mental Concealment. — Hold a bird in the hand and study its life. 
It has your confidence and you have its. The little ways and evidences of 
spirit, its bird nature so to speak, are seen on their surface only; the 



EVIL. 229 

thought that glistens in the eye remains an absolute mystery. So the 
favorite dog, the ceaseless friend and companion of its master, is understood 
by its habits ; but no one knows what it thinks, what it plans, or what it 
hopes. Between man and man the same gulf often exists in lesser degree ; 
and long experience is sometimes necessary to enable one to read another. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the eud of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX CCCXCVIII. 
Intellect Necessary to Evil. — There are two ways of looking at 
this proposition : it is supposed that one who commits a crime, is or is not 
responsible, according ao his mind is clear or clouded. Insanity is said to 
remove all claim of actual guilt. On the other hand, we find the greater 
fact to be that mere intelligence is incapable of sin or crime. These dis- 
tinctions, while subtle, are fixed and well defined. We are next confronted 
with the difference between the evil life that haunts all flesh, and find two 
purposes present. 

For Essays on this subject, see '' Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCXCIX. 
Two Purposes of Evil. — The first purpose is to kill the human 
body ; the second is to incite hatred, and through hatred to destroy man's 
power to develop a soul. In other words, a personal being, called the Evil 
One, who is at war with God, is manifest in Atoms, in Nature, in life, and 
in man ; and is resolved to thwart the purposes of the Creator of Good, by 
preventing the development of perfect souls, capable of furnishing happiness 
to God and of being happy in Him. No greater fact is apparent in the 
universe; and if this is not proved, nothing is or can be proved. Man, as 
soon as he is bora, is under attack ; if his body escapes, his soul is in 
danger of destruction. The Evil One seeks only to thwart God. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the eud of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCC. 
How Man Originated. — The soundest and safest argument presumes 
that God did not intend to create man ; but that, in the conflict between Him 
and Satan, the affray resulted in the ITars of the Sun; and the Atomic 
armies, representing the life of each great Combatant, have continued, and 
are still continuing, the struggle for supremacy, with the ultimate victory 



230 H03IE COURSE IN PSILOSOPHY—TOME SIX. 



already ascertained. The fact that God is opposed or defied, does not 
destroy the idea of his omnipotence ; nor does it lessen His power because 
millions of years may be necessary in order to overcome His arch-enemy. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCI. 
Man the Result of Conflict. — If God was all knowing, and could 
look into the seeds of time. He would not have created the first man and 
woman; for He must have foreseen the fall, the treason, the murder, and 
His curse of these created beings. He would not have permitted the 
millions of men and women to live and fill the earth, if He could have 
foreseen that all would become wicked, and their extermination would be 
necessary. Nor could an all-just, all-wise, all-powerful God have created 
the suffering, miserable, tortured races that struggle to exist on the face of 
the globe. They are no credit to wisdom, but a living monument of the 
conflict that made their existence possible. " I do not, can not, will not 
believe that God created man to be subjected to temptation and afterwards 
to be punighed in hell," is the cry that, in these modern days, has modified 
the plain, direct teachings of the Bible. Clergymen, without right, turn 
and twist the text to suit the idea that ultimately all souls are to be saved. 
One who pretends to teach and preach the gospel of Christianity, has no 
right to contort the direct statements of the New Testament ; and especially 
of Revelations, the parting words of which warn all men against taking 
from or adding to the prophecy therein. It is clear that God either did not 
intend to create man ; or, if He did, the Evil One has thwarted His pur- 
pose in part. I prefer to believe that we are the result of a conflict between 
the two Combatants, and that the battle is raging, not alone in the sun, but 
on earth, and finally in the hearts and bodies of humanity. From this 
conflict some souls are born to be saved; and the vast majority are to be 
lost. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCII. 

Proof of Man's Danger. — I do not ask or wish any person to accept 

these claims, either now or upon absolute proof. I simply say that they are 

not theories. To understand them, it is necessary to re-read the pages of 

this philosophy many times; to re-read the Bible again and again; and to 



EVIL. 231 

consult the facts of life. Not only do the proofs exist in our minds, souls, 
and bodies; and in all Nature; but they walk hand in hand with the 
assertions of the Bible. I seek to go back to the word of God as it is, and 
was; not as modern society in the churches seek to interpret it. It was 
written for man in language that the peasant can understand ; why conceal 
it on the plea that it should only be read when a great scholar stands by to 
say that this means that? Before forming an opinion on man's origin, I ask 
every student of these pages to think for himself, and let no word of mine 
influence him. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCIII. 
The Darwinian Theory. — In the absence of all theories, a remark- 
able work by a learned and honest scientist, Charles Darwin, was given to 
the world. Although he himself states that his conclusions are suggestions 
and surmises, without actual proof, the great colleges are teaching the sur- 
vival of the fittest, the evolution of the species, and the descent of man to 
all young minds. There is not a scientist or professor who will not exclaim, 
" Why, a few years ago most people objected to the doctrine of evolution ; 
now it is generally accepted as true." I have given the fullest attention to 
the propositions and proofs furnished by Darwin and his successors; and find 
that professors of Darwinism are more opinionated than the great scientist 
himself. He distinctly declared that no direct proof could be advanced. 
He drew his conclusions from facts within the limits of species. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCIV. 

The Limits of Species. — The acceptance of the Dawinian theory in 
no way conflicts with the Bible, or any phase of religion; and only colors 
any account, tradition, or myth related to the beginning of our race. It is 
neither necessary nor unnecessary; in the way or out of the way; a help 
or a hindrance. It solves no mystery, sheds no light on the one greatest 
fact of creation — How it originated — and leaves us as much in the dark as 
ever. Investigators and students lose sight of a principle that is the only 
proved thing in life: the limitation of species. In a meeting of professors 
of great learning there was one question put which checked all theorizing : 



232 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

"Is there any evidence of a species breaking over its limit?" Darwin 
pleaded for a larger limit to the divisions of life: "there are too many 
species," he said. A species should contain more than a small class of 
variations. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCV. 
Diversity. — As we know life, it is full of every kind of diversity, both 
in and out each and every species. This fact should not be forgotten. 
This diversity is and has always been growing less, and tending toward a 
unit. While this fact at first sight tends to confirm the operation of the 
doctrine of the survival of the fittest, the pages of geology show that 
differences have been decreasing, while Darwin expressly undertakes to 
prove that, in spite of the survival of only the fittest, the differences have 
been increasing. This diversity is so great, even now, that all life seems to 
be the sun of several species. This seeming ceases at the door of proof. 
There is not one particle of evidence that any species is the sun of others. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCVI. 
Improvement of Species. — It is true, and abundantly proved, that a 
species in its own limits is capable of every kind of variation, improvement, 
and modification. This is the total of Darwin's discoveries. It is all there 
is of the Darwinian theory ! I often have successfully challenged any 
person to go beyond that. Darwin never went outside the limits of species. 
No fact ever tended to go beyond that. His learning and his life were 
crowded with evidences and theories confined to operations within the 
species. For instance, he attempted to show that man might have been a 
modification of the ape ; and admitted that it would require millions of 
years to establish the variation necessary to a single step between the 
nearest approach to man and the first of the so-called missing links. As 
there are at least three of these missing connections, not less than thirty 
million years would have been required to cause the evolution of a savage 
out of a highly developed ape ; and untold hundreds of millions to have 
evolved the ape from the next preceding type. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



EVIL. 233 

LESSON CCCCVII. 
Evidence. — While species respond to influences within their own 
limits, they return to their former type when left to themselves. This may 
be witnessed in the breeding of animals under the care of man. That the 
species are limited is well proved by their condition ; and the claim that the 
gaps may represent extinct races is not sustained by any fact ; it is merely 
pointed to by the evidences of variation seen within the species, — an 
elasticity of modification that always rebounds. In the hopeless search for 
the missing evidence, great satisfaction was evinced vipon the discovery of 
the skull in the caves of Engis ; this single fragment of a head being 
supposed to represent pre-historic man as less than a savage and more than 
an ape. The skull was not found entire ; the best judges of such anatomy 
inferring what might be the whole skull, and assuming a fact from the 
inference. Even if the skull stood for the fact as desired by men who 
sought to enforce a theory, no single piece of evidence of so frail a nature 
could establish a fixed doctrine; for abnormal development is always 
possible. But the evidence is not weighty. A student who will investigate 
the claims of this discovery will see on what slight facts a great theory may 
rest. Before entering upon the study, lay aside two influences : first, the 
thought that the doctrine of evolution is true, or new, or fascinating ; 
second, the abruptness of learned men who say ; "Pooh! there is no doubt 
about the Darwinian theory ; anything to the contrary is not worth reading." 
A large field of authorship is o})en to one who will give the facts to the 
world, in an elaborate volume, devoted exclusively to the subject. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCVIII. 
Waste of Ages. — Old as the world is, it is not yet old enough for 
man to have been evolved, even from the serpent ; to say nothing of the 
steps long prior to that era. God, if He created all life, could not have 
wasted ages in a useless and senseless process of change. If so wonderful 
and complex a being as man could have come from a unit of protoplasm, he 
could as readily have sprung from the same unit, simultaneously with all 
forms of diverse life. Instead of following in lines of succession, it is more 
rational, and more in accord with existing facts to believe that he is co-ex- 
tensive with life, not one of many lines of evolved life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



234 E03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

LESSON CCCCIX. 
Newness of the Earth. — The chronology of the Bible under different 
translations varies the age of the earth from six to ten thousand years. 
This supposes that Adam was a fact, and God made the earth in six actual 
days, instead of eras or periods of geology. The more we examine collat- 
eral history, the more astounding is the harmony of all things with the 
Bible. The unearthing in recent years of pillars, columns, cylinders, and 
fragments of tombs, bearing inscriptions that cannot be subject to the cry of 
forgery, without exception, shed new light on that hoary account of Hebrew 
history, and compel the reverence of scientists. Few have ever thought of 
the evidence furnished by history itself, and man himself, of the age of the 
race. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCX. 
Age of the Human Race. — That our ancestors may have been less 
cultured than we are, is not disputed ; but we assert that the savages are 
not of our race. They play their part in the diversity of life, and give way 
to others. Geological races of so-called men may have existed, and have 
walked on all fours, tearing their food with large canine tusks, clawing their 
enemies and brushing off flies with their tails; but civilized men never ap- 
peared until, in the long struggle for existence, the Caucasians secured a 
foot-hold on the planet, and protected it by their superior intelligence. As 
such a race have they existed longer than the Bible chronology. Two thou- 
sand years ago Greece and Rome flourished. At that time more than two- 
thirds of the world were unknown to civilization. This hemisphere is but 
four hundred years old in history. Passing from the cultured era of twenty 
centuries ago, we may extend our glance back one thousand years beyond ; and, 
though the haze of distance veils the sight, we know that Europe was bar- 
barian, and the operations of civilized men were confined within a narrow 
section of the earth. All evidences are lessened, history is meagre, and lan- 
guage, — that key to mankind, — is dwarfed to a small vocabulary, showing 
the limited use of words and terms. If no other evidence were at hand, 
the gradual shrinking of language would point conclusively to the primitive 
ondition of the people. A few thousand years back, all history, language, 
inscriptions, tombs and architecture, cease absolutely ; bearing most certain 



EVIL. 235 

testimony to the fact that humanity, as a civilized race, has not been on 
earth longer than the records of the Bible indicate. Nor does geology dis- 
pute this fact. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON ccccxr. 

The Reason Why. — We are, therefore, opposed to the theory that 
millions of years have elapsed since civilized man first appeared on the 
earth ; and to the claims of evolution, except as stated under the doctrine of 
diversity. Yet neither of them affect the ccmse of all life ; and particularly 
the origin of man as he is. It is only in the study of existence that these 
matters appear important. The chief thing of interest to man is to find out 
why he is as he is. No one claims to be sinless. The most are frank 
enough to admit that an evil nature is rampant in human life. The common 
inquiries are, is it inborn, or is it the result of surroundings ? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXIL 

Is Evil Inborn ? — A child raised in surroundings that influence its 
life only to good, as many have been raised, gives evidence of its inward 
state. The children of holy parents have been known to become criminals. 
Facts may be made to point both ways. The off-spring of moral parents- 
ought to possess native goodness, unless influenced by surroundings of evil ; 
or they may bring to light the evil of past generations. Some men have 
attempted to raise children under careful nurture, allowing no evil to be 
said or done in their presence. The mind and heart are made purer by such 
care; but, when the first association with the world is had, the dormant evil 
is almost of spontaneous growth. A youth unprepared for life, is soon 
overwhelmed. It seems that the best training is that which instils into the 
mind the knowledge of sin, its part in the body and life of every being, and 
its attempt to destroy the soul. I firmly believe, and I have many reasons 
for so doing, that a child should be cautioned against the efforts of the Evil 
One, and should be encouraged to carry on the fight (that must eventually 
absorb its life) between the good and the evil which dwell within its body. 
Properly trained in these matters, with its spirit of resolution steeled against 
yielding to a personal tempter, it is more likely to lead a pure life and 
eventually to develop a soul that may inherit Heaven. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



236 S03II: COUBSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOMi: SIX. 



LESSON CCCCXIII. 
Conflict of Intellects. — The DEVS within us are highly intellectual, 
and become more so as they combine to make animal life, and less so in 
vegetation. For this reason physiology teaches us that meat makes brains. 
In the seed germ of grains is a little drop of vitality containing phosphorus, 
which is generally thrown away in bolting the flour. This vitality is 
capable of building the brainiest minds of earth ; and is free from DEYS. 
The phosphorus from meat is more acute for evil ; less tendant to honesty. 
Whatever may be the cause, the body is sinful, and the representatives of 
evil are not blind forces, but active intellects prepared to war against the 
tendency to good that dwells within man. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXIV. 
Tortures. — Vegetation is gentle. The animal kingdom is consistent 
in some degree. Its cunning and deception are nearly always strategic. Few 
animals torture. A tigress loses its young by theft. She overtakes the 
aggressor in time to see the cub killed before her eyes. It is doubtful if, 
even then, she is inspired by revenge. Her purpose is to kill merely to get 
rid of the enemy, or for food. Some of the apes are revengeful, though 
they rarely torture for the purpose of torturing, and causing suffering, 
regret, and remorse. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXV. 
Human Fiends. — Ascending the scale of intellect, we find that when 
a being is capable of prolonging the sufferings of an enemy, he is called 
human. The rule is the chief, and, in some instances, the only guide to a 
human mind. We call those men human who, in Montezuma's time in 
Mexico, cut their fellow beings to pieces while alive. It was in the name 
of religion, but in the spirit of evil, that they tied them in public 
places; stripped their bodies naked; and proceeded to carve their flesh with 
sharp instruments, while the agony of the sufferers brought the chief joy of 
life to the fiends. Where are now the millions whose lives were thus 
destroyed, and where are the millions more who played the part of 
butchers ? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



EVIL. 237 

LESSON CCCCXVI. 

Sufferings. — The American Indian was not unparalleled in atrocious 
cruelty, but has furnished some examples of the evil intelligence which may 
absorb the good in a being. He was accustomed to so torture his foes, that 
a highly enjoyable occasion was made of the ceremony of death. Burning 
alive was the usual thing, except in battle, when scalping was immediately 
necessary. To be put to death by fire is not always the most terrible of 
tortures, for smoke fills the lungs and renders the victim unconscious; but 
the Indians were careful that no such blessing should be the happy lot of 
one whom they wished to punish. Very slow fires were burned, and some- 
times the lungs were shielded from the danger of suffocation. In Mexico 
they often laid their victims on beds of coals, where they could linger for 
hours and days. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXVII. 
Thirst. — The most terrible of tortures were committed by beings 
higher in the scale of humanity than savages. In Asia the art of inflicting 
cruelty is an accomplishment that has never been excelled in its degree of 
fiendishness, unless by the religious leaders of modern Europe. They dis- 
covered the art of boiling alive, over a slow fire, while the victim's head 
was kept above water. They learned that death by thirst was about as 
horrible as the fiend within them could devise. They tied the poor fellows 
to a seat or compelled them to stand, and caused fresh, cool water to trickle 
down before them into a goblet. In a day or two the agony of thirst 
would appear, and its cruelty would steadily increase until the victims 
would become hopeless maniacs. Who suggested these tortures? How 
came they in the human heart? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXVIII. 

Crucifixion. — To nail a man, head downward, to a tree or cross was a 
common and favorite diversion of the men of old. The custom prevailed 
before, and for a long time after the time of Christ. Many of the victims 
lived for days. Not alone the agony of the pain caused by the torn and 
swollen flesh, but the fever of thirst, the tortures of flies and insects, and 



238 HOME C0VB8E IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

the pangs of hunger drove the mind of the sufferer to such horrible dis- 
traction that the eyes would burst in their sockets. What was there in the 
human breast that could invent such dire cruelty ? Man never tortured ani- 
mals, and animals never tortured man, except in the rarest instances. The 
evil intelligence originates in a being with a soul, and is operated against 
another being with a soul. How do you account for this spirit of malice? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXIX. 
Civilized Tortures. — Before the discovery of America by Columbus, 
that hemisphere was a crowded scene of fiendish human activity, born of 
hell and long since dumped into hell. There was not a ray of moral light 
in the limits of the entire horizon. I do not believe, and if my own senses 
have not played me false, I hnow that not one of such masses of humanity 
ever formed or can form a savable soul. The solemnity of this fact requires 
further analysis in the subsequent Tomes. To-day, with the exception of a 
few moral Caucasian spots, all Asia and Africa are hot-beds of fiendish 
cruelty. The best Asiatic I ever saw was a religious convert to Christianity, 
and a hypocrite of the finest type. In a certain narrow zigzag strip, the 
pathway of civilization crosses Europe ; and here, because of its advanced 
culture of mind, history paints the blackest picture of human deviltry. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXX. 
Scale of Civilization. — Thus we see the steady progress from low ani- 
mal intellect, accompanying merely the attack on life, to the highest culture 
accompanying the most complete methods and implements of torture that 
could be devised. Draw the curtain over the continent of America during 
its ages of crime; shut the thought from universal Asia, with its centuries 
of cruel tortures culminating in the crucifixion of Christ, in an age when the 
blackness of moral barbarism shrouded the earth in one long spell of night; 
hide Africa and the vernal climes that breed the pestilence of sin ; and look 
at civilized Europe in her best robes. She wore the garments of religion, 
and taught the doctrine of peace on earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



I 



EVIL. 239 

LESSON CCCCXXT. 
Religious Tortures. — Under the subject of Religion we shall discuss 
the moral reasons that impelled the fanatical leaders to torture their fellow- 
beings. At this place we will present only a fact or two, to arouse the in- 
quiry,, how man could be so fiendish. Passing the dark ages when less than 
one per cent of all people died a natural death, except in happy infancy, 
we will come to the dawning of the great modern era of supreme intelli- 
gence. Here we find that the sweet gospel of love and peace was transferred 
to men, women and children on red-hot irons and sharp-pointed instruments. 
Burning to death was less a matter of grave concern than the annoyances 
that kept the convert alive. If you desire to know something of the 
unpleasant feelings which these religious leaders were able to generate, make 
a thumb-screw (a very simple device), and attach it to the thumb of either 
hand, close behind the nail. Ask yourself if you believe some impossible 
and absolutely unimportant and immaterial tenet or dogma of the Christian 
religion. If you hesitate about answering, turn the thumb-screw a little 
tight. It will make you howl and scream in an agony that you never 
dreamed the human heart could invent. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXII. 
Effect of Example. — Your howling will arouse the neighborhood; 
but so much the better. You are an example to ail who do not believe this 
particular tenet ; and the sufferings caused you will be the result of their 
adherence to the great tenet. For two or three hours you have screamed 
and howled with pain ; the fibers of flesh, nerve and muscle are lacerated 
and torn ; and being more sensitive here than in any other part of the body, 
they are agonized by the least touch or jar. After a while ask yourself the 
question, do you believe this, that or the other thing ? Do you believe that 
if you pay one shilling your soul may be saved nntil you pay another ? Did 
you not hear somebody say something against our holy religion? If you 
hesitate, turn on the thumb-screw a little harder ; the blood-vessels burst, 
the fiesh flies apart, the nerves are lacerated ; and the serene brow of one 
who serves a Master of love is lighted by a throb of pleasure, — you are 
about to tell a lie to escape the torture ! 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'" at the end of Tome Ten, 



240 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

LESSON CCCCXXIII. 
Falsehoods. — There can be no doubt that millions of falsehoods have 
been told by tortured victims, in order to purchase freedom from suffering. 
Confessions to anything asked have been made, in the hope of further im- 
munity ; only to be followed by judgment of guilt on self accusations, 
clearly false. Then came the long imprisonment in sightless dungeons, 
where the fair form of divinity rotted, inch by inch, in years of delirium. 
In the days of religious supremacy, any suspicion, envy, jealousy, revenge, 
served to instigate some enemy to inform against another; then followed the 
secret inquiry, the false charges, the tortured confessions, the dungeon and 
insanity. Flesh was worthless, and minds were immured in madness. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXIV. 

Channels of the Past. — It is through such channels as these that 
our religion has come to us; but, as it is all there is of religion, we must 
accept it or nothing. What was the moral value of the people who could 
invent the rack to stretch a five foot body to eight feet of length ; a wheel 
on which all the bones were broken, and from which the sufferer was 
dropped to the ground to squirm like a worm and move as best he could ; a 
band of steel-points to go about the head and pierce the skull when tightened; 
a body of knives to embrace the heretic; a skin-flayer to peel the cuticle off 
in strips; and numberless instruments designed to cause man more misery 
than he already had ? 

^ For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXV. 
Plain People. — The leaders of modern religion who used the rack 
and its kindred, to torture the human body are all dead. Their spirit lives 
to-day in many a fanatic of prominence. They cannot be called scars on 
the face of nature, nor any of the names that moralists would fling at evil 
doers. These men were not possessed of the devil ; but were made up of 
his Satanic material, body and soul. Until Luther hurled his opposition at 
the infamy of the church, I do not believe that, in the thousand years 
preceding, one per cent, of the leaders of religion escaped the pangs of hell 
and eternal destruction ; and this belief some devout priests share at this 
day. The popes were not the channels through which the religion of Christ 



i 

I 



EVIL. 241 

has come to us. To find the great conduits of the gospel of peace and 
salvation, you must search among the peasant homes, and mountain shep- 
herds ; for absolute goodness dwells only in the plain people of a land. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXVI. 
Where Morality Thrives. — In simple lives, in humble homes, in 
quiet nooks and corners of the earth, the spirit of peace may be found, and 
only there. True life is not on the sea, nor in the cities. It is a part of 
the earth itself, amid vegetation and flowers. Man's hope is through asso- 
ciation with Nature in her open avenues of growing life; his food and his 
religion are found nowhere else. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXVII. 
Philosophy of Punishment. — It is hard to say that a criminal should 
go free; but the philosophy of punishment presents a proposition that, at 
first sight, seems to favor the theory of escape from the consequences of 
crime. The final and the great punishment of the evil-doer is the destruc- 
tion of his soul ; for no man can live in the happiness that may follow 
death, unless he is morally able to develop an immortal soul. The death of 
the evil doer is the end of him forever ; and the end of his soul, except the 
tortures that occur in the disintegration of the spirit. Of this we will see 
the process later. This act of soul- destruction is simply the breaking up 
of a tiling that has no hold on its own life. But, before death, the punish- 
ment of crime is an act directed against the evil life within the body of the 
criminal, by the evil life within the body of the punisher. Let us examine 
this proposition. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXVIII. 

Evil Against Evil. — A parent who strikes a child is pitting evil 
against evil ; the bad within against the bad within. A person whose whole 
constitution is of the ANG disposition, would not think, and much less 
execute, an act of punishment. In comiuunities where the devil is admit- 
tedly the reigning influence, and the ordinary vices are patted on the back 
as companion traits, the law is in the hands of criminals ; and the evil of 
the heart delights in private murder and public lynchings. From this 

16 



242 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

temper of malice down to the operation of ordinary justice, the same prin- 
ciple prevails. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXIX. 
Prevention of Crime. — Philanthropists have again and again declared 
that the sole purpose of punishment should be the prevention of crime; and 
this requires the interference with the criminal as the first step. If a man 
commits one murder, he is either to be executed or imprisoned to prevent a 
repetition of the offence; although the chances are much against his 
repeating so horrible a crime. All are agreed that he is to be put out of 
the way or kept out of the way. A further and greater purpose is the 
deterring of others from committing a similar offence. Both purposes are 
humane and necessary to the safety of society. No fact is better known 
than that the devil would quickly become rampant in people, and override 
even the sanity of the mind, if Nature's first law, exact justice, were not 
enforced. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXX. 
Exact Justice. — If a man places himself beneath a falling mass, he 
is crushed to death. One who jumps into the ocean can avail nothing by 
long, heartfelt prayers for mercy as against justice. If the hand is placed 
on burning coals, all the dissertations on benevolence, forgiveness, and loving- 
kindness cannot save the flesh from burning. The inexorable law of exact 
retribution is never so positive as when it is incapable of feeling. So revenge 
should never guide the administration of justice. The most perfect punish- 
ment is that which has no flexibility ; and the weakest is that which horrifies 
by its revengeful aspect. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXI. 
Inflexible Justice. — While there are grades of temper and malice in 
the commission of offences, the very fact that there exists the possibility of 
leniency, mercy or escape, always accelerates the disposition to become 
careless and reckless. Very little good in the way of prevention or deter- 
ring others, is accomplished by the so-called mercy theory. It is but a 
compromise between the desire to save society and the fear of hurting too 



EVIL. 243 

much the feelings of the offender. The true type of punishment must be 
inflexible justice, entirely devoid of the spirit of revenge or the desire 
merely to make one suffer, except as an example to others. Let it become 
known that crime is absolutely punishable and this form of mental disease 
will be greatly a thing of the past. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXII. 

Capital Punishment. — The problem of legislation is the right of 
government to take life ; not the propriety of the custom. A voluntary 
murderer can never, under the remotest possibility of circumstances, inherit 
eternal life. His soul is an out-cast of the universe. His body is of no 
use to the further development of the soul-life ; for the latter is doomed 
beyond recall. No man who slays a voluntary murderer is guilty of an 
offence, in the eyes of a law higher than that of earth. A man, a body of 
men, or organized government may dispose of the living carcass in any way 
they deem proper; but a mistake of individual or of fact makes every 
person engaged in the transaction a voluntary murderer. For this reason a 
judgment of court is a necessary condition precedent. Here is the law of 
ages. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXIII. 
Propriety of Capital Punishment. — The right is one thing and the 
propriety is another. A law that is so administered that escape or leniency 
is possible, must be practically ineffectual. Certainty of retribution is the 
only preventive of crime. The claim that, in the olden days, when the 
gibbet and the axe were constantly in operation, moral degradation was most 
abject and crimes most frequent, is grossly illogical ; for the wickedness of 
men was not caused by their execution. The punishment of criminals, being 
the act of evil against evil, is not a moral force ; it may deter the commis- 
sion of sin, but cannot plant the seeds of good. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXIV. 

Publicity. — The chief wrong done to the public is the advertising of 
the details of execution. There is to most criminals a fascination for the 
morbid; and, in the moral lapse that comes to many morbid minds, the 



244 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY- TOME SIX. 

worst of crimes are committed. To nearly all murderers the thought of 
notoriety is almost akin to that of fame to the great. One is but the 
deformity of the other. Many men and women seek notoriety first as a 
stepping stone to fame. The glorification of some brutal murderer, through 
that putrid excrescence of social impurity, called by Dickens a sewer, and 
generally known as a newspaper, always tempts men to commit murder. 
If the fact could be made known to all mankind that such a crime was 
surely punishable, that retribution was certain and swift; if the execution 
were before a private jury of death; and if the law should compel the daily 
papers to remain silent, or merely report the fact that Murderer No. 9 was 
executed; the morbid appetite of boys and girls, and growing as well as 
grown criminals, would have less to feed upon. I doubt not that, in a few 
years, the necessity for capital punishment would practically disappear ; and 
the question would settle itself. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXY. 

Morbid Appetites. — The mental balance of a person in perfect health 
is never at its best, unless the moral nature is highly developed. Insanity 
is the work of DE VS. It begins in what is called a morbid appetite ; a 
craving of the evil within for association. If the good is predominant, it 
craves the beautiful, the sweet, the pure ; and grows on its feeding. But 
there is a spirit of sin in most hearts that reaches out, through the three func- 
tions of life, for a friendship with the evil that stalks abroad. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXVI. 
The Three Functions of Life. — When the Evil One has so far 
obtained possession of the body that the DEVS within reach out for the 
friendship of the DEVS without, this eagerly sought association is effected 
through man's three divisions of life, — the mind, soul and body. The latter 
is manifest through the stomach, its great feeder; and vicious tastes, culmi- 
nating in a special thirst for alcohol-DEVS, is the result. The heart craves 
feelings of the most morbid character, loves gossip, accounts of tortures, 
fights and murders. The mind not only seeks impure literature, but finds it 
ready and waiting. Other mental DEVS had gone before and prepared 
the food for what must surely follow. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



EVIL. 245 

LESSON CCCCXXXVII. 
The Insane. — Either by a concurrence of the derangement of the 
three functions of the body, or the co-operation of any two of them, the mind 
may be, and generally is, somewhat affected. Of course it is well-known 
that most cases of insanity are the result of vices. Others, supposed to be 
the result of goodness, are in fact, the unnatural assumption of goodness. 
Thus a person who has been bad for a life time, suddenly becomes reformed. 
The new wine in old bottles must cause a severe strain, or burst the recep- 
tacles. So goodness does not suit unnatural conditions. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXVIII. 
Morbid Minds. — The devil, in his attempts to gain ascendency over 
the life of man, takes advantage of every circumstance that favors his ad- 
vent. Goodness batters down the obstacles of opposition, and comes into an 
open warfare. If evil approached in its own guises, it would rarely be 
admitted ; for no man would willingly invite a serpent to his bosom. 
Therefore, it comes through appetite, or thoughts or feelings. Reciprocity 
is clearly illustrated. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXXXIX. 
Reciprocity. — If a boy has a craving for some hoodlum literature, as 
the dime novels for instance, he will find the thing printed and on sale. If 
a young man is ])rompted by the Evil One within him, to desire sensational 
items of police doings, he will find that the devil within some other human 
being has already anticipated his wants. The obscene DEVS in all classes, 
create a demand for stuff which the obscene DEVS of certain men prepare 
and place on sale. Climbing the scale of supposed civilization we find that 
this evil influence is able to adapt itself to every class and condition of 
humanity ; and, under the pretense of education, to spread the putrid 
germs of moral disease into homes, among men, women and children. This 
guise of the devil is the newspaper. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXL. 
Sewerage — I believe in the weekly paper as it is generally found in 
American homes. It must be encouraged, and made to prosper sufficiently 



246 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

to be able to give up the questionable advertisements which appear in it. 
Obscene and medical matter are generally found in the weeklies, to the 
annoyance of the majority of the subscribers. The pictures of people said 
to be cured by patent medicines, are as offensive to the readers who see 
them on the parlor table, as if the same horde of imaginables had come in 
a body to spend the week there. A single step will make the weekly papers 
a blessing and a means of education. Not so with the dailies and Sundays. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLI. 
Sunday Journalism — In the first place, laying aside the general 
objections to newspapers, there are special features connected with Sunday 
papers that prevent any moral person from reading them. It is claimed 
that they do not represent work done on Sunday, but are prepared on Satur- 
day. If this were true, it would still be objectionable ; for he who works 
so hard on Saturday as to be exhausted on Sunday has desecrated the 
Sabbath; and anybody who knows newspaper men is aware of this fact. 
The claim is not true that the work is all done on Saturday; it continues all 
Saturday night and into the forenoon of Sunday for many of the attaches. 
The first objection is, its Sunday-breaking. The second, it breaks the 
Sunday for others, who spend hours in reading stuff which they think is 
true. Third, it has kept many a man away from church-duties, home- 
duties, self-duties. Fourth, its sewerage is to the pure atmosphere of the 
Sabbath morn, as bacterial malaria from a death-swamp, is to the mountain 
breeze that bears the perfume of flowers to her who brightly trips along the 
meadows at the sound of the church-going bells. I insist that every student 
of these pages shall bar forever from his home and his eyes, all Sunday 
papers. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLII. 
Daily Journalism. — Some years ago I made war on the iaewspapers, 
as mere sewers of moral filth, and they replied. I can prove by indisputa- 
ble evidence, as caa every person living, the following facts: the articles 
supposed to be news are enlarged from small dispatches, in many cases; 
many so-called special dispatches are pure inventions in the office of the 
papers; generak press dispatches are enlarged from a few lines; interviews 



EVIL. 247 

in nearly all cases are concocted by reporters ; interviews that are not 
wholly in vented are nearly always grossly and falsely exaggerated; supposed 
events are pure inventions in many cases ; nine papers out of every ten are 
blackmailers, and are paid to suppress articles that are infamous lies; the 
orders from the owners of the papers compel the reporters to hunt sensa- 
tional articles in preference to news; the men engaged in the publishing, 
editing, and writing for the daily papers are, as a rule, unfit for church, 
home, or social affiliations; a man who will cater to the morbid lust for 
putrescence is a blackleg at heart, and dishonest from core to skin ; a writer 
or reporter who will assail that which is more precious than life, — reputa- 
tion, — is an outcast from the world, both physical and spiritual; the 
reporters, almost without exception, are in fact men who are denied admis- 
sion to the homes of decent people; the falsehoods of newspapers have been 
responsible for every business panic that ever spread over the country ; they 
are an injury to honest business; if daily papers were suppressed, it would 
be impossible for gamblers in stocks and foods, outside of certain cities, to 
thrive or even exist; the daily paper takes an hour or two of valuable time 
each day to read, supplants intellectual reading with gush, sensation and false- 
hood, teaches morbid cravings for gossip, excites political animosity, personal 
hatred and feelings of revenge, and, under the pretence of keeping a man 
informed on matters that bother rather than interest him, it implants its own 
devilish inspiration into the lives of those who otherwise would rise to a 
superior plane of life. There is not one honest reason why a man should 
read a daily paper. The weeklies supply him admirably with current 
history, and the monthly magazines furnish that which is reliable and 
permanent. For these reasons all who inhabit our "Ideal City" must 
discard daily papers. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Roles for Essays," at ihe eud of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLIII. 
Border Land of Civilization — In Korea, that mid-way country 
between civilization and barbarism, the personality of the devil is amply 
visible; yet, cruel as these human beings are, they are no worse than modern 
Europe and America. Take away the influence of the Prince of Peace from 
the hearts of our best men and women, and the horrible cruelties of the 
darkest eras of the world would instantly reappear. My claim is this : 



248 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

cruelty and hatred are not dependent upon civilization, but upon moral 
education. The devil is alike in all ages, all climes, and under all degrees 
of civilization. Let me tell of the doings of humanity as swayed by the 
devil in Korea, at this very day and hour ; and let some of our students ex- 
plain this phase of the human heart. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLIY. 
Treason. — In Korea the body of the dead rebel, Kim Ok Kiun, 
was brought to Korea, cut into six pieces, and the bloody head, the 
hands, the feet and the trunk were carried over the country and hung 
above the gates of the cities as a warning to rebels. Not only this man him- 
self was killed, but his whole family, and all his relatives have been terribly 
punished. ' His father did all he could to prevent his boy from rising against 
the King ten years ago, and after his rebellion went into retirement. He 
was old and blind, but after Kim's death he was dragged out and his head 
was cut off. The men of the family even of the third and fourth generations 
were executed, and the women, including Kim's seventeen-year-old daughter, 
were given over to be the slaves or concubines of the officials. After this 
rebellion the mothers, the wives, and the daughters of all who have taken 
up arms against- the King will become the common property of the Govern- 
ment and of the magistrates of the provinces in which they live. They will 
be dragged from their homes to be concubines and slaves. As their beauty 
wanes they will be handed from one high oflicial to a lower until they de- 
scend to the bottom dregs of the Government service. They will have no 
rights that anybody will be bound to respect, and their only chance of happi- 
ness will be in death. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLV. 
Method of Capital Punishment — The criminal is not allowed to 
stand or sit in the cart. He is tied to a cross which is built up just over the 
wheels and nailed to the cart. This cross is so high that when his arms are 
stretched out and tied, his toes are still six inches from the bed of the cart. 
A block is then put beneath them, and this block is so short that the tips of 
his toes barely touch it. The road grows rougher as it nears the West gate, 
and from thence to the execution ground it is filled with ruts and great 



EVIL. 249 

rocks. At the West gate the block is knocked out from under the toes of 
the prisoner, and he hangs by his arms and his neck. The bullock is then 
whipped by the driver, and the cart bounces up and down over the rocky- 
way to the execution grounds. Here the criminal is taken down from the 
cross. He is stripped of his clothes and laid upon his back in the dust of 
the road. The executioner is always a murderer, and the weapon is a sword, 
which is so blunt that it mashes rather than cuts the head from the shoulders. 

For Essays on this subject, see ' Rules for Essays." at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLVI. 

Small Offences. — Death is often administered in Korea, even for 
slight offences. Yet most of the people are refined and of elegant manners, 
love poetry, and have souls almost as lofty as those of Americans. Still, 
these punishments are such that they would be a disgrace to the most 
ignorant and savage nations of the African wilds, and I wonder if after all 
our humanity is not civilization veneer, and whether we would not be quite 
as bad had we not for generations been studying how to do better. We are 
the same Christian people who burned witches at the stake only a generation 
or so ago, and our great-great-grandfathers punished the least stealing with 
death. What was common in feudalism would be disgraceful now. Korea 
is practically a feudal nation to-day, and it is in fact in the same state that 
China was about four hundred years back. Korean thieves are decapitated 
for their crimes. They are only cut into two pieces, however, and the law 
provides that their bodies need not lie on the execution grounds longer than 
two days before their relatives can take them away and bury them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLVII. 
Theft — The thief, when he is first taken, is flogged by the officers. 
He is then asked as to his crime, and after this, is taken to the house of the 
judge. The judge demands what he has done with the property, and if the 
thief replies that it has been sold and gives the name of the party who has 
it, it is confiscated. He is then taken to jail and kept there for one hundred 
days. At the end of this time the police give him the option of life or death. 
If he accepts life he becomes a servant of the jail for the rest of his existence; 
if death, he is strangled. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



250 HOME COURSE IN PEILOSOPHY—TOME SIX. 

LESSON CCCCXLYIII. 
Strangling. — This strangling is done in a curious way. There is a 
hole in the door of the cell just large enough for a piece of rope about the 
size of a clothes-line to pass through. A noose is made at the end of the 
rope, and this noose is placed around the criminal's neck. The other end is 
put through the hole in the door or the wall, and the police pull at the rope 
until they bring the man's chest and neck above and below the hole and 
until the neck breaks and the man is dead. The question as to whether a 
thief be strangled or decapitated depends upon the nature of the offense. 
Strangling is much the more respectable way of dying. Sometimes this is 
brought about by hanging. The thief's neck and hands are tied to a post, 
so that his feet are some distance above the ground. About his ankles a 
stout rope is then fastened, and to the end of this a stone, several times a& 
heavy as his body, is hung. Of course, the man dies. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXLIX. 
Suffocation. — Another method of execution is by suffocation, and 
this, strange to say, is done with paper. The man is laid flat upon his 
back, and a sheet of Korean paper is spread over his face. This has been 
soaked in water, and fits over the man's face, being pressed down so that it 
makes a veritable death mask, shutting out every bit of air, and the man 
dies. Anyone who has seen the paper of Korea will appreciate how easily 
this form of execution could be carried out. It is made by hand. It is as 
thick as a sheet of blotting paper and always as strong as leather. When 
moisture is applied it becomes exceedingly soft, but does not lose its 
strength, and it would make an excellent molding material. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCL. 
Torture — The Korean policeman who arrests a man as a thief when 
he knows him to be innocent is liable to be caught by the man's family, and 
his eyes may be burned out by them with red-hot pokers or iron chop-sticks 
which have been heated in the coals. His eyes have not seen truly in arrest- 
ing the wrong man, and it is thought just that they be put out. Another 
way of performing this punishment is by laying the policeman on the 
ground with his face upward. A tube of bamboo, just about one inch in 



EFIL. 261 

thickness and as long as a lead pencil, is fitted over the eye and the other 
end of it is pounded with a mallet until the eyes are squeezed up into the 
bamboo tubes. Such cases are not uncommon, but a policeman who inten- 
tionally arrests an innocent man is liable to this treatment. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLI. 

Confessions. — The torturing of prisoners to make them confess is 
common in Korea, and it is wonderful what inventions of torture are some- 
times in use. Think of tying a man's bare feet to a stake in the ground 
and burning his toes with powder. Think of all sorts of flogging and 
pinching and cutting, and you can get some idea of the powers of a Korean 
magistrate. In the prisons you will find iron chains, stocks, and all sorts of 
manacles. These Koreans know how to whip so that the flesh is ravelled off 
of the bones. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLIL 

Paddling. — This is the most common form of punishment in Korea. 
These paddles are about six feet long, five inches wide, and perhaps an inch 
thick in the centre, tapering down to a thickness of perhaps three- eights of 
an inch at the end. They have small handles, and they are made of a white, 
hard wood, which is very flexible and elastic. The paddling kesos have a 
regular guild of their own, and the business often descends from father to 
son. They are wonderfully expert in the use of the paddle, and the officers 
carry from two to a hundred of them with them, according to their rank. 

The man is tied to a board, which lies on the ground on two small blocks 
of wood. His body is bared from the waist to the ankles, and he lies upon 
his belly on the plank. There is a rope around his waist which is fastened 
through a hole in the board, and there are also ropes about his feet, which bind 
him so tightly that he cannot move. The keso stands behind him with his 
paddle, and the officers look on to see that he is properly whipped. Often 
a half dozen men are paddled at the .same time in this way. If there are no 
planks handy, they are laid flat on the ground on their faces, and their feet 
are sometimes fastened in this position in wooden stocks, so that they cannot 
move. They are laid out in rows and each man has his paddler beside him. 
Each paddler's arms are bare to the shoulder, and they work in unison. 



252 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

They have their paddles raised back over their heads as far as their arms 
can reach, whea they are ready for action, and they bring them down at the 
cry of the under officials, who, with swords at their sides, stand at the head 
of the line of half-naked men and yell out a sort of a chant, which sounds 
something like this: La-hoo-aa-hoo-oo. The paddles are raised at the first 
la, and as the final oo-oo is uttered they are brought down with a crack like 
a pistol on the skin of the men, and the executioners grunt with the exer- 
tion. They have a way of pressing the paddle down on the quivering 
flesh, and of pulling it ofE with a rub before they raise it. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLIII. 
Sand-Punishment. — The first strike usually makes a blister, and at 
the close of the second the paddle is wet with water or blood. As these 
executioners drag it off, they rub it into the sand, pressing it there until the 
keso again cry La-hoo-aa-hoo-oo. Then the paddles are raised again, and, 
as they are brought down this time, they are covered with sand. They 
pound the particles into the flesh, and as the men drag them off they take 
away the skin as though it were sand-papered. Words can give no concep- 
tion of the punishment, and when you remember that any official has the 
right to paddle any man below liira, and almost any one of prominence can 
paddle those of lower rank, you can get some idea of the condition of affairs 
in this country. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLIV. 
Proof of the Evil One. — As it is, sometimes men are killed by 
paddling. Fifty blows would surely do it, and the ordinary dose is about 
twelve strokes. Much paddling will reduce the flesh to a jelly, and even 
after slight punishment men have to be lifted up and carried away. They 
cannot rise of themselves. The paddling goes on in the army, and a 
General or a Colonel can paddle a private, and the privates paddle the 
citizens, and so it goes. There is such a thing as bribing the paddlers, so 
that they pretend to kill the man, but moderate the stroke as it comes down 
and only punish him slightly. In fact, bribery is possible from the top to 
the bottom of Korean official life, and there will have to be an entire 



EVIL. 253 

reorganization of the whole system of government here before the people 
can have prosperity or peace. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLV. 
Lax Laws. — Wicked and corrupt as is the great nation of Korea, it 
is a type of the crystallization of evil in all our great cities. Let the law 
become lax, and dishonesty will ride rough-shod over the whole people; 
vice, with all its hideous heads, will rise to swallow the good, to destroy 
honor, virtue, decency, and industry. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLVI. 

Growing Lawlessness — Under the pretence of freedom, but in the 
clearly apparent guise of licence and licentiousness, the devil in man is 
rapidly over-awing the law of America. This claim has been made several 
times by prominent men, free from motive to mislead; but the Evil One 
speaking in the mouths of the newspapers, and his other agents, has charged 
the statesmen with being pessimits, calamity-talkers, and the like; the result 
being that those who love and would aid to uplift humanity are cowed and 
become silent for a lifetime. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLVIL 
Names of Evil Origin. — Have you ever noticed that, when a man or 
woman takes a noble position in the world, the Evil One, through the news- 
papers and his other agents, at once invents a name to be applied as an 
epithet to the better one? The vocabulary of the press, gamblers, bar- 
tenders, and the morally disordered, is composed almost exclusively of 
epithets invented by the devil to be hurled against good men and women. 
I have collected over four hundred of these opprobriums. The most 
striking example of noble courage is the power of a good person to with- 
stand an epithet. A clergyman told me he could not openly support the 
cause of temperance, for the papers called him a " crank." Another 
refused to be known in a crusade against gamblers, because the press would 
call him a "reformer." I declare here and now most solemnly that a 
clergyman who refuses to take an OPEN PUBLIC stand against the agents 
of the Evil One, against gambling, intemperance, sensational journalism and 



254 ROME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

vice generally, oan never enter the kingdom of Heaven ! The reason for this 
assertion I will present in later pages. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLYIII. 
Change of Opinion. — It is because morality, for the peace of its 
supports (?), makes compromise with evil, that lawlessness is fast controlling 
this country, and wearing the garb of license, stamped freedom in bold 
letters. All persons, except those of the most disordered moral condition, 
know that liquor-selling is a crime. The time was when the public mind 
did not admit this. Now, since so many homes have been ruined and so 
many bright lives blasted, all decent people confess that it is the direct work 
of Satan; and that bar-tenders and dealers are criminals and unfit compan- 
ions of men. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLIX. 
Sensationalism. — What alcohol is to the body, sensationalism is to 
the mind and heart. The sewerage of moral slums, called the newspapers, 
is the growing rampant monster of the day. It makes intemperance, crime, 
vice and debauchery easy. As the DEVS first weaken the physical tissue of 
the flesh to make them an easy prey to putrid diseases that follow, so the 
newspapers weaken the mental tissues of the brain and the moral tissues of 
the heart by their sensationalism. The result of this weakening is to make 
bad people an easy prey to vice ; but the graver result is the veil of tolera- 
tion it throws over the character of the good, so that every person exclaims: 
"There is so much bad in the world, that my influence cannot count much 
either way." Thus toleration comes about, and the vicious sensationalism of 
the press is accepted as a thing that cannot be helped. It is pure lawless- 
ness. Hence we have one instance of an open defiance of the criminal code, 
as well as the law of Heaven; against which the people, in their present 
moral condition, are perfectly helpless, because they are part of and partly 
believe in sensationalism. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLX. 
Gigantic Combinations. — The common law, founded in natural 
justice, provided against perpetuities, on account of the dangers they created 



EVIL. 255 

by reason of the enormous power. Tlie jjeople did not forsee the vast com- 
binations of wealth now possible ; but the nature of the evil is the same. 
The legitimate earnings of the farmer are denied him by the lawlessness of 
these giant evils ; trade and business in their lesser and therefore more 
healthful channels are choked ; and all classes are affected by it. There 
should be a limit to combinations. The people seem helpless, owing to a 
wicked political system, which is controlled by demagogues. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXI. 

Alcoholisnn — In spite of a strong moral sentiment against it, liquor- 
selling is an open defiance to the law, and. is increasing. The interests of 
the brewers and distillers compelled them to combine ; and they and their 
rank and file control a large share of the political legislation of the country. 
In several large cities they are in absolute power. In smaller cities and 
towns, they are the rulers. I write this particular paragraph while in a 
small city where there are eight churches, many very respectable people, and 
large business interests. Yet the streets are never free from men reeling in 
drunkenness ; the council is controlled by a brewer, who is notoriously 
ignorant; the brewer's son is postmaster, having, by a change of party, dis- 
placed a respectable person in the office ; the postmaster is under indictment 
(and has been since convicted) for inciting a riot of drunken foreigners; 
and, what might be otherwise a beautiful and prosperous city is cursed by 
these DEVS. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Riiles for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXII. 
Defiance of Law. — I travelled in more than one hundred counties of 
a strictly temperance state, — that is, temperance as far as the statutes were 
concerned. Public prosecutors, all the officers of the law, the press and the 
people openly defended the defiance of the law. The latter classes were 
powerless, because public sentiment was the devil's strong right arm. 

For Essays on this subject, .see '■ Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXIII. 

Gambling. — This vice is openly supported, heralded and praised by 
the public press. Gambling is able to defy the law because it rests on four 



256 HOME COUBSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

giant pillars: politics, greed, the press, and the devil. Hardly a town or 
city is free from it. If sentiment downs it in one form, it will reappear in 
another. Being the offspring of evil, it is shrewd, and it seeks the channel 
of nobility as a disguise of its course. Thus the grandest of animals is 
made to play a part in the crime of men. All daily papers record in ad- 
vance and afterwards the doings of the horse-race gamblers ; men, women 
and youth are notified, excited, tempted ; the press leads thousands to their 
ruin every year. So the white-blooded criminals who sit in Wall Street, 
and in exchanges all over America, and who speculate on breadstuffs, and 
the products of labor and business, are gamblers, one and all ; unfit for 
Heaven and destined to eternal destruction. No law can reach them ; and 
their criminal transactions have precipitated every financial panic of the 
last thirty years. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXIV. 
Lynching. — The slowness of the courts in punishing criminals, has 
compelled the public in hundreds of localities to permit lawless executions. 
The people are either powerless to enforce the laws or else to prevent this 
lawlessness. The open defiance of government is notorious. And, in all 
these lynching states it is everywhere an undisguised fact that the law is in 
contempt. People kill at will, overpower constables and sheriffs, sneer at 
the courts, and openly express their defiance of all law. In other words 
justice may prevail only when they choose to permit it. This spirit of evil 
is, I know, increasing; for I have carefully canvassed the states through 
agencies of the most reliable kind. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXY. 
Profanity — Any spoken thought that comes from the devil within 
man is profanity ; and it generally is aimed at the good. In hundreds of 
towns I have heard the most horrible language from those who pass along 
the street, under windows, and near women and children. There is a species 
of human vermin who stand on the curb stones, spit tobacco, swear in every 
breath, talk filth and eye every woman who passes. I have listened to many 
such vermin. North and South, East and West, and find them all alike. 
One noticeable feature of all low creatures, is the fact that when a respect- 



EVIL. 257 

able person has just passed, they curse him. Few men know how often they 
have been cursed; for they do not hear it. The law is openly defied by 
these profane criminals, and there seems to be no remedy. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj's, " at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXVI. 

Immigration. — As a rule in these days ninety-five per cent, of all 
immigrants are criminals. The people of America do not seem to have the 
power to check the tide ; and the next generation must pay the penalty. 
The law is defied and no remedy is at hand. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXVIL 
Loafing, — To get rid of a tramp a woman or weak man will feed him. 
Twenty years ago the tramps were abundant; to-day there are twenty to one 
of that former time. They are increasing. They are a professional class, 
determined to defy the law. What home in the city, in the town, in the 
village, in the fairest of earth, the country, is a safe or ha]jpy one, when at 
any hour of the day or night a lazy, insect-laden mass of filth and rags 
comes through the gate and takes temporary possession of the premises. 
For the safety of the people, as well as to put down a growing evil, every 
tramp should be fed at one place only in each locality, after which he should 
be compelled to work for the public. The cause of the evil is the feeding 
of the tramp. A man or woman commits a public offence who feeds a 
tramp. They know where they may be fed; and if a neighborhood were to 
agree to feed none, the pests would prey elsewhere ; and, if likewise treated, 
would soon go to work. The law is now defied. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXVIII. 

Obscenity — There is everywhere a distribution of influences that 
create a taste for the obscene. In books, pamphlets, newspapers and other 
periodicals, this taste is catered to in order to create a demand for reading 
matter. Certain authors write filth in the form of novels, send copies to 
the government, seek to get the book suppressed so as to advertise and sell 
it. It is a sad reflection on the domination of evil, that, when an obscene 
book is suppressed, it is eagerly purchased by the public. Thus in enforc- 
17 



258 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SIX. 

ing the law, the government becomes helpless. On all sides we see the 
growing spirit of lawlessness. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at tlie end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXIX. 
Politics. — A good man, while he is in duty bound to take part, has no 
place in politics. The machinery of all parties is lubricated by dollars, 
corruption and liquor. The first thing a party does in opening the campaign 
work is to collect dollars , not a cent of which is spent honestly. What is 
called campaign literature is a continuous mesh of lies, distorted facts, and 
libel. Not until the honest men of all parties come out of party allegiance, 
lay aside selfishness, and work for principle, can the combined power of the 
press and rumshop be overcome. A free man has no right to be a partisan, 
and is laying the foundation of his own disasters. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Eules for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXX. 

Strikes The doctrine that one man can compel another to pay or to 

accept a price that is not the result of mutual agreement, is anarchy. The 
fault of laborers is their political partisanship. If the good people of all 
classes will come out of parties, and unite for the principles laid down in 
our Ideal City, the labor question would settle itself. As it now is, the 
gigantic combinations of labor are treasonable conspiracies against estab- 
lished government, organized by a few men, who are officers of labor 
societies, and enemies to the cause of labor. I believe in eight hours as a 
day's work, in a Saturday half-holiday, in wages much higher than those 
now received, and in rewards to laborers in the form of old-age pensions, 
paid from taxes levied on excessive incomes; but I am sure that there is a 
growing defiance of the law among strikers that will ere long overcome 
temporarily the government itself. Thus on all sides, the lawlessness of the 
people of America is taking advantage of freedom, and is eating away the 
foundation of society. People who deny this are either ignorant, or are the 
friends of anarchy. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXI. 
Tolerance. — It has been wondered at why the immoral and indecent 
sheets called the newspapers are tolerated ; but the wonder ceases when we 



EVIL. 259 

know the constitution of man, and the insidious purpose of evil to over- 
whelm his soul. Few dare to assail the spirit of fiends, others do not care 
to be covered with mud, so the evil takes advantage of this knowledge and 
the crime thrives. Tolerance permits all evil to grow until the good is 
killed. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXII. 
Curiosity — To be merely interested in an event is proper; but the 
evil that instigates man to his own doom makes use of this propriety and 
lures its would-be victim to dangerous ground. Curiosity is the father of 
scandal, gossip, slander and quarrels. No person has a right to interfere 
with the affairs of his neighbor until they affect the public or encroach upon 
the rights of another. One man's privileges end where another's begins. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXIII. 
Interference — Curiosity leads to inquiry, then to suspicion, then to 
remarks that are a plain interference with the affairs of others. The re- 
marks are to third parties ; they become confidences, and therefore general ; 
they grow into lies, and incite gossip and enmities. They started from the 
unwarranted interference in matters that were absolutely none of the busi- 
ness of the first meddler ; but, being agencies of the Evil One, they are not 
suppressible. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXIV. 
Gossip. — No more insidious, wicked or malicious element resides in 
the blood of humanity than the spirit of gossip. It is as incurable as sin. 
It places no responsibility on the morality of man ; for it is the Evil One 
himself, present and active in almost every thought and breath. The very 
people who gossip the most, and serve up the reputations of men and women 
on the soaking toasts of malice, are the first to censure gossip when reminded 
of its evils. You may be sure that persons who set themselves up as hor- 
rified by the fearful malevolence of gossipers, are the first to commit the act. 
There are some acute minds that can decry the evil in a moral breath, and, 
instead of gossiping outright, insinuate more than their worst words would 



260 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

imply. This system is the elaborate work of the DEVS that inhabit the 
flesh of mankind, and serves to keep alive the malice that makes life intoler- 
able. The proneness to gossip can never be cured; or not until these agents 
of the Evil One are made a minority in the body of the individual. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXV. 
Education. — All intelligence is capable of imparting education to that 
which is intellectual. Intellect is a capacity to add to that intelligence 
which is known as instinct. Thus the intelligent forces of vegetation be- 
come intellectual in their animal after- growth ; and develop into reasoning 
faculties in the higher organism called man. Therefore vegetation may be 
trained, and animals and men may be educated. The two latter classes are 
constantly subject to the influences of both good and bad. A dog, who is a 
worthless cur, has many a follower in the human species ; the currish nature 
being the result of ancestral education in part. The constant danger of bad 
or evil training is a source of peril to all, and should be met by increasing 
watchfulness over ourselves, and over others in our care. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXVI. 

Drifts. — Left to self a person drifts, and always one way. There is 
no down grade to morality. Even in refinement and culture, the positive 
efforts of training are necesssary ; for, as soon as these efforts are withdrawn, 
the body grows coarse and the mind rough. The bad weeds that choke a 
beautiful garden are exemplified in the coarseness that overwhelms the 
accomplishments of mind and body. Let a refined man go to an uncultured 
locality, and he soon falls in line with the sneers that are made at every 
suggestion of improvement in human personality. It is not nature, but the 
people who live in the midst of, but cannot appreciate, nature, that may be 
charged with inspiring the evil that undermines the good. Wherever we 
turn the same story is repeated always ; the two influences are at work ; the 
larger DEVS and ANGS make up the physical, mental and moral existence 
of every man, woman and child on earth. The only question involved in 
the life of an individual is, What proportion is good and what bad ? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



I 



EVIL. 261 

LESSON CCCCLXXVII. 

Personality. — What are you? The answer is your safety or your 
extinction. Life cannot drift always; for the Evil One means to annihilate 
all whom he may control. God never created a soul to be damned ; Satan 
does. The God-given part of the soul is choked as a weed in the garden. 
He never made the bud to be blighted, the blossom to be blasted, the fruit 
to be withered, the tree to be destroyed by insects, nor the flower to hide 
the thorn. God is all-good, all-wise, all-great. Man is not His off-spring ; 
but, like all life, is the result of a conflict of forces in the universe. The 
image of the Creator, man may meet and see Him beyond the grave ; the 
image of Satan, he must account to the devil, if he affiliates with him in 
the flesh. Your personality is double; as life advances you assume one 
image or the other; if you are positive in your dislike of goodness, culture 
and moral stature, the Evil One is your absolute and unchangeable master; 
if you are careless and merely drift, the incline is always down; you will 
never float up stream. The peace and rest and happiness of self-effort to 
attain goodness, are works of God, imprinted on an eternal soul. What is 
your personality ? 

For Essaj's on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXVIII. 
Battle-grounds — There are two moral battle-grounds on which the 
conflicts of immortality must be fought. One is within the quadruple exist- 
ence of every human being ; and the rules which govern the engagement are 
known as religion. This will be discussed in the Tome entitled " Good." 
The less important, but more terrible, battle-ground is in the life about us. 
The demand of God is for warriors willing to face the malignity of the 
assaults from the devil and his DEVS. I assert that the religion of the 
world has been in the hands of those who are agents of the Evil One. All 
through the centuries of the dark ages the haters of purity were the leaders 
of the church. When Whitefield and Wesley aroused the latent forces of 
good in England, they found the clergy asleep, stupid from beer and wine, 
and lethargic to every moral impulse. The administration of religion con- 
sisted of a machine-service, unthought sermons, and unfelt prayers, — all a 
mockery at God. If the rules laid down in our subsequent Tomes are true, 
and if their demonstration is absolutely proved, as the facts conclusively 



262 HOWIE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SIX. 

show, it must be true that lethargic ministers and church leaders are in- 
capable of forming eternal souls. The examples of Christ and all his 
disciples are set as types of the clergy. No man has a right to accept the 
ministerial position for its salary and its quietude. The life of the preacher 
demands an open declaration of war, and an array of the forces of evil 
against those of good. The malice of the agents of sin must be quickened 
and uncovered. The friends of God must not only compel the friends of 
Satan to show themselves, but must show them to all mankind. The 
first duty of the clergy is to uncover the enemy. This produces attack and 
war. What of that ? No bitterer things can be said of a good man to-day 
than were uttered against Christ, his disciples and his followers. Good 
never follows compromise with sin. Wesley was confronted with domestic 
troubles, a vicious wife, an accusatory press, a hostile ministry and a 
denunciatory public ; he uncovered the enemy. All historians to-day, 
friendly and unfriendly, declare that Wesleyism changed the face of 
English religion, politics and society, all for the better. Had he never 
been abused he would have been inefEectual. Hundreds have followed in 
his steps ; have uncovered the enemy ; and have won immortality. Outside 
as well as inside the church, the call is for reformers ; men and women 
capable of uncovering the enemy ; willing to be attacked and abused. In 
temperance reform, Gough laid a foundation of moral supremacy that has 
changed the face of America, and averted the fate of this country from that 
of Europe, where all classes drink liquors, have inflamed faces, are mentally 
stupid and morally lax. Gough arrayed against him the whole enemy : 
the saloons, criminals, newspapers, drinkers, politicians, gossipers and liars. 
The papers charged him with every crime possible ; dogged his footsteps 
with reporters, detectives and other crimioals; concocted lies of the most scur- 
rilous stripe; and squirmed as he kept on his way without noticing them. 
Look at the uncovering of the devils caused by the purity of Washington. 
If you will glance over the copies of the press of his time, you will lose 
all faith in human nature when you read that he was accused of the most 
heinous offences known to the criminal code. So Lincoln was charged, not 
alone by the press of the opposition and of the South, but by his own party 
editors, with being a traitor and a criminal. No pure life has escaped. No 
aggressive defender of good can, or ought to hope to escape. As long as 



EVIL. 263 

the enemy lie hidden, rest in ambush, or dwell in the peace of compromise 
with good men, they are dangerous. Their malicious blows fall harmless 
when they are compelled to strike in broad daylight and from an uncovered 
position. I now declare what I know must be an absolute and unvarying 
truth, that the peace of God is only purchased by war with the devil ; and 
that clergymen who administer religion in a machine-like manner, who eat, 
sleep and pray in a routine course of life, who do not come out and uncover 
the enemy, will not, cannot, and never may, inherit immortality. Upon them 
rests the chief responsibility. But all who would live beyond the grave 
must fight openly here the arch-enemy of life. Even if the doctrines of 
the Shaftesbury Philosophy are not considered, the proof is otherwise 
abundant that humanity is a conflict of the two forces of good and evil ; 
and one must overwhelm the other. Who will give their lives to the battle 
to uncover the enemy ? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



END OF TOME SIX 

EVIL. 



For Graduation and Diploma, see Tome Ten. 



TOME SEVEN. 



LIFE. 



LESSON CCCCLXXIX. 

Impressions — Let any person sit down, think very deliberately for a 
while, and then make a note of the impressions they have of life. Three 
things will predominate : selfishness, the ever-present and fear. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXX. 
Origin — Few will think of what they are. Archimedes offered to move 
the earth, if someone would provide him with a fulcrum, on which to place 
a lever. Suspended in mid-space, with no communication with the world 
beyond, we are unable to obtain a starting point on which to base the proofs 
of things most interesting to know. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXL 
The Span of Life — In this Tome we will consider all that occurs in 
and about man from the cradle to the grave ; leaving the preceding and suc- 
ceeding eras for other pages. The present is called the span of life. It 
begins where the vital cell is organized, and ends when the body has passed 
all the processes of decay, and been assimilated by mother earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXII. 
In the Loins of the Father — All flesh, all vegetation, all life in fact, 
consists of a collection of cells. Their accumulation, addition, and variety 
of differentiation, cause all growth, shape, parts, and conditions of the body. 
The muscles are long lines of cells, in threads and bundles. The skin is an 
interweaving of surfaces, to serve as a covering. The bones are cells and 
their mineral deposits produce hardness. In the functions of the body each 
plays its part, under the influences of a fixed intelligence, which is the sum 
of many Atoms having an individual purpose. When a boy approaches the 
age of puberty, there commences to unfold a certain number of spores, 
which contain ids and idants, inherited from his father, mother, and their 

(264) 



LIFE. 265 

ancestors. These little structures are not the boy's creation, nor his devel- 
opment. They have not grown in his body. The great fact concerning 
them, is that they are the only identical particles which remain from the 
bodies of his parents. The germ spore from his father contained one 
hundred : the sum and substance of all his ancestry. This hundred imparted 
their own increase during incubation ; the number which was to become 
fixed in the life of the boy, became established during pregnancy ; and he 
went forth into the world charged with limited possibilities. In all the 
growing years of boyhood these ids are incubating, stimulating the growth 
of the young body as they themselves are approaching maturity. They 
then make their presence felt in no unmistakable terms. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXIII. 

Paternity. — It is, as we have carefully explained in Tomes Four and 
Five, the nature of a cell to multiply by division. Under the stimulus 
of excitement, the vitality of the germ-spores causes a rapid increase in the 
bacteria growth within the organic parts. The pressure is so great that few 
men are able to control themselves ; social vices, and even crimes, are charge- 
able to this tremendous energy within the loins of man. The ids form cells, 
each containing one hundred ids, and being a reproduction of the life of the 
whole man, with the sum total of his ancestry. The creation of any one 
such cell is the whole act of paternity. Its union with an ovum is an act 
of nature. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," as the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXIV. 
Maternity. — A girl is likewise the sum total of ids. Under a sepa- 
rate intelligence the cell from which her body was developed, has expanded 
into a mass, whose parts and purposes we will consider ere long. The duty 
of maternity is to furnish a receptacle for growth. It does not contain the 
life, nor the seed; but is merely a sack, an envelope, into which the seed 
may be deposited, be nourished, and grow. Whether this process occurs by 
the union of parts of two beings, or in one progenitor, it always requires the 
seed and receptacle. Thus paternity may be said to be the development of 
the seed, and maternity of the receptacle to receive it. The life of the new 
being is wholly originated in the loins and supplementary organs of the 



266 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 



father, and consists of a cell, having a nucleus, the latter containing the one 
hundred ids, or sum total of his ancestry. This is the new being, the new 
life, the child. The mother creates no life ; but, taking the nucleus from 
the father, she nourishes it from her own blood, and imparts to it the due 
proportion of her own character and nature. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXV. 

The Child-cell Draw a circle ; in it place a smaller circle ; in the 

latter make one hundred dots. Here is the new-born child. The circle is 
the cell; the inner circle is the nucleus; in it are the one hundred ids 
containing the sum total of the lives preceding. In fact the cell is not 
round but oval or long, and has a tail, or hair, to enable it to swim. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXVI. 
The Egg. — By a law of special intelligence, the parts of the mother, 
called ovaries, are devoted to the one duty of making little receptacles, so as 
to be ready to meet the seeds of the father in case any come along. Woman 
is merely a receptacle, as far as her special anatomy is concerned. The 
ovaries themselves are receptacles for developing and containing the eggs ; 
each egg is a single receptacle for the seed of man ; the fallopian tubes are 
receptacles for the passage of the egg and generally for the union of the 
seed with the egg ; the womb is but a receptacle for the development of the 
egg after its impregnation ; the woman herself is the receptacle for the 
growing child ; and, after birth, her breasts are receptacles for collecting 
the food on which it must live. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXVIL 
Ovarian Life. — There are two sets of ovaries, the right and left. 
The right contain cells of eggs, intended and constructed to influence the ids 
of the seed of man to form a male child; the left ovary being the 
originators of female children. In simple words, these eggs develop in a 
procession- like order; one being full grown each month, one being half- 
grown, one a quarter, and so on, down to a general mass. There are 
thirteen months in a woman's year, and thirty years or more in her maternal 
life. Each ovary is about three-quarters of an inch thick, and one inch to 



LIFE. Q^Q^J 

one and a half inches long. The most highly developed egg when ready to 
descend to the womb, bursts open the ovary, and escapes, leaving a distinct 
scar. The right and left alternate. The two ovaries are shaped like the 
two testicles of man, and are called the female testes. Like man's creative 
organ, they develop a cell, with a nucleus; but this cell is devoted to its 
own multiplication, and development, following the ])roce?s which we so 
fully described in Tome Four, in relation to protoplasm and the amoeba. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXVIII. 

Conception. — In the walls of the testes of man the seed-cells are 
being formed, while in the testes of woman, there are likewise growing 
receptacle-cells, on exactly the same principle. The egg bursts from the 
ovary, is caught by the hairy lining of the passage and passed slowly along. 
The seed of man is supposed to have already entered the womb; and, 
gallant in all phases of life, it is more than probable that it will climb the 
tube to meet the egg. Being smaller and energetic, it pierces the cover and 
proceeds directly to the nucleus of the egg. Its own nucleus contains one 
hundred ids inconceivably small. The union is completed by amalgama- 
tion, or the formation of a single mass, having the complex relations of 
mind and matter interwoven in the most intricate manner. This is concep- 
tion. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCLXXXIX. 

Increase The first law of increase is to divide. There are two cells 

instead of one. The child was contained in the one; but it is equally 
contained in each of the two. In thus multiplying, it doubled all its ids. 
Again they divide : and what was one is now four, ids and all. This multi- 
plication is all there is of growth. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXC. 
Differentiation. — Another law now enters to prevent uniformity ; for 
if the ovum grew merely, it would be a mass of jelly-like flesh. The ids 
are charged with an intelligence that is most amazing ; it is deeper than the 
deepest thoughts of man, more subtle than any cunning that humanity ever 
exhibited, and more skillful than the deft fingers of expert lace-makers. 



268 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

This intelligence is diverse and simultaneous. It can build all parts of the 
body at once. The varieties of shape, thickness, length and breadth in the 
union of cells as masses, is called differentiation, and accounts for all the 
nerves, tissues, veins, muscles, vessels, ligaments, skin, bones, and organs of 
the body. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essa5-s," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCI. 

Colonies. — Intelligence never acts singly. No better word than colony 
could be used to represent the union of action displayed by these bits of 
forces. One hundred of these colonies are sent out by the one hundred ids 
which become the basis of the human body. After a few days the ovum is 
a multiple cell-life ; the number of new cells being already enormous. The 
id which represents one process of development will collect its cells and form 
a colony ; while each and every one of the ninety and nine others will form 
as many distinct colonies. A unity of intelligence prevails in the colony, all 
Atoms and cells being enthusiastic in the work to be done, and operating 
together in the utmost harmony. Over and above all is the unity of the 
assemblage of colonies, called the foetus. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCII. 
The FcEtus — By the laws of differentiation the human shape is soon 
developed, and dwells amid a mass of blood in the growing receptacle. The 
colonies attend to the work of building each part perfectly. All the while 
it is growing in the globe, drawing blood from the veins of the mother by 
the umbilical cord, through which the circulation is kept up, in and out of 
the new life. The story is told when the process of cell-multiplication, 
differentiation and colonization is made clear. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCIII. 

Quickening When the foetus is a little more than half-grown in 

point of time, the heart of the child begins to beat ; and this may be de- 
tected by a practiced ear placed upon the abdomen of the mother. This is 
called quickening. It means that the colonies engaged in the building of a 
new life, have progressed so far that they may set up a separate organic 
existence, complete in itself, though not ready to embark upon its destined 



LIFE. 269 

existence apart from its source of nourishment. At this time the heart im- 
pels the blood of the child through all its veins, draws it from its own 
abdomen, instead of its stomach, — a fact somewhat true of the human body 
in real life; and returns the blood to the umbilical cord from which it came, 
and whence it goes to enter the system of the mother to be thrown off in the 
excretions. It cannot breathe, for it does not require air to purify its blood ; 
but it takes food, circulates it as blood, and expels it : all this is necessary 
to life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCIV. 
Birth of the Soul. — It is a question of some importance to the race 
to ascertain when the soul enters the body ; for a child of seven months is 
often regarded as a mere embryo, and cast from the womb on mere pretence 
of saving the life of the mother. Of course it is proper to protect the 
mother first ; but in many cases the child is not thought of. To take the 
negative side to begin with, it is certain that the child is only a vegetable 
flesh growth, before the time of quickening. Does the soul enter the body 
when the heart begins to beat, or when the child is born and can inhale the 
air of life, or when intelligence comes ? 

For Essays on this subject, see '' Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON COCCXCV. 

A Human Being. — One is none the less a human being because he 
may or may not have a sound mind, intelligent reasoning faculties, or a soul. 
I have endeavored to study the problems of soul existence under many new 
phases ; having done, in part, in this direction, what others have so well 
done in the investigation of the properties of electricity. That the soul is 
the immortal part of man no one will deny ; but that it is always immortal 
is open to inquiry. One of the ablest physicians in America told me that 
he did not believe the soul was immortal, because sleep, a blow, or insanity 
was capable of bringing absolute unconsciousness ; during which there was 
no evidence of other than physical life ; the person being mere nothing. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCYI. 

Unconsciousness — In sound sleep we are unconscious. Does the 
soul sleej)? No, it cannot be physically weary, and cannot need sleep. 



270 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

If it were capable of being psychologically weary, or morally tired, such 
exhaustion could not always coincide with the desire to go to sleep. Half 
the atheists of the world have been made so by this one fact : sleep of the 
body proves the non-existence of the soul. A blow or accident may put a 
person in a state of unconsciousness, lasting for many days ; and the evi- 
dence is clear that the soul gave no manifestation of its existence in any 
way. Here are two absolute proofs of the non-existence of the soul. 
Another appears in the form of madness. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCVII. 
Madness. — A soul must be a responsible essence. It must be a life 
that can be charged with the fullest responsibilities for its acts, that may 
be rewarded for its deeds of goodness, or punished for its neglect to fight 
off the DEVS in its moral system. A person born an idiot, is not such 
a life. One who is of sound mind and of wicked disposition, does not 
become a saved soul by entering an era of idiocy. One who is of sound 
mind and of good disposition does not lose his soul by becoming a mental 
wreck. Insanity seizes us as it finds us, and for the time all life of a 
spiritual nature ceases. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCVIIl. 

Idiocy. — If a child is a born idiot, it became so when it quickened. 
If it lives and dies a man of no mind, it is merely a flesh-vegetable, and 
no more human than the three month's fcetus. If it is born clear-minded, 
and afterwards becomes an idiot, it stands just in the same place as it would 
have, had it died when it became idiotic. Thus a born imbecile is never 
capable of eternal life ; and a child or mature person, who becomes de- 
ranged and remains so until death, is practically dead when insanity begins. 
If there are moments of lucid intervals, or a return to mental soundness, 
the thread of life is resumed where it was interrupted ; and, taken as a 
whole, the person will be judged. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON CCCCXCIX. 
Bodies or Souls ? — During that long period of insanity when the 
mind may have remained for years clouded and empty, and when the soul 



LIFE. 271 

gave no evidence of its existence, but one conclusion is possible : there was 
no soul. This fact is not disputed by the Bible, is hinted at by psychology, 
and is proved by physiology over and over again. But the sentimentalist 
will cry, "It is horrible to think that a dear friend who becomes insane is 
eternally damned." As will be seen in Tome Ten, no such conclusion is 
warranted. The fact is simply one proof that the human body does not 
contain a soul, nor does it exhale one until after death, or as it dies. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON D. 
When the Soul Takes Life — It is not at the time of quickening, nor 
at birth, nor when responsible intelligence is fixed, or when the mind decides 
to give its life to a new era ; but it is at the moment of death, that there is 
a possibility of the soul taking on its own life. In this claim I have no oppo- 
sition in any creed or religion, and those who think I have, are requested to 
read every word of this Philosophy with the utmost care, and to read all 
sources of supposed opposition. Do not take any single statement of mine 
by itself ; but hold the whole Philosophy together as one harmony of doc- 
trine. I not only have no actual opposition to the assertion that the life of 
the soul begins at the death of the body, but I have proof after proof of the 
fact, and know what I am saying as absolutely as the scientist can know the 
simplest thing in life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DI. 
The Agent of the Soul — We have seen that a human being is not 
only the result of a conflict that is going on between two forces of good and 
evil, but is really a part of the conflict, and is composed of the essence and 
nature of each of the great combatants. More than that we shall see that man 
is a being of very high intellect, and that this intellect is the agency destined 
to determine the fate of his soul. He is, in fact, the creator of his soul. 
God does not create him or it. The devil does not originate either. The 
conflict of the two creates man ; the double purposes of good and evil are 
present in his body and mind and moral nature. Each is seeking to win. 
If the devil succeeds, the result is the ultimate futility of the existence of 
man to give birth to a soul at the time of his death. If good wins, an im- 



272 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

mortal spirit rises from the ashes of the dead and takes its flight toward its 
great Affinities, God and Heaven. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DII. 
Metamorphosis. — Nothing can be more beautiful than this thought 
of metamorphosis. From the worm the butterfly emerges. From the frail 
human body, the soul is born. Death gives way to life. The spirit comes 
into being when the vital energies of body and mind and moral nature yield 
up their essence, and a new combination, called an immortal spirit, wings 
its flight to God. It accords with our dearest sentiment; it makes the Bible 
clear on every page; it explains all the doubts of scientists; it sweeps away 
every physiological illusion on which atheism hangs its objections; and it 
impresses on mankind the only doctrine of religion that must inspire 
inherent goodness. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DHL 
Birth. — Passing from this discussion, the purpose of which was to 
settle the question as to when the soul was born, we will accompany our 
foetus into the world. It has quickened, its heart has commenced to beat, 
and it ceases at once to be a mere plasm of vito-vegetation. It is a being, 
to some extent independent. It grows rapidly, is active, turns over in the 
womb, and at or before the time of birth it places its head at the out-let 
(called presentation), and is eager for life. Physically helpless and weak, 
it has mental strength, which it cannot translate to those around it ; but 
which came to it months before. It is not so remarkable that a foetus 
should have consciousness as that the born child should remember it. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON Diy. 

Child-mind Far out of proportion to its general body is the brain 

of the new-born babe. Its mind should be studied by psychologists. There 
are phenomena which escape even its mother. In its fresh waking moments 
look into its eyes and try to fathom the depth of its thoughts. The gleams 
of consciousness are full of meaning, and the strength and clearness of its 
mental operations may be made to appear by many simple experiments. 



LIFE. 273 

There is no doubt that one knows and realizes more than can be remem- 
bered. The activity of the brain, called memory, is a function of exercise 
merely ; and is but distantly related to the origin of thought. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DV. 

First Knowledge. — A brain of flesh can realize no more than its 
surroundings. The child-brain quickly grasps the situation, in wonderment 
at first, and then it tires of the old for the new. In the first three months 
of its life, it may make or lose the progress of years afterward. That is, 
if its intelligence, helpless as the child seems, is carefully fed, between its 
sleeping and eating periods. I have seen the most remarkable evidence of 
child-thought made manifest in infants who otherwise might have developed 
into stupid feeders. History furnishes evidences of precocity at the age of 
two or three, that would have done credit to one of maturity. Biography 
tells the same story ; as in the case of Ruf us Choate and others who at the 
age of five or six read Greek and Latin authors. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DVI. 
Child-idiocy. — It is not only true that the first three months may 
help to advance the child in after years; but the neglect to interest the 
infant may mar the growth of the brain. Intellect is a thing that is easily 
modified by its surroundings and comes and goes with the concomitants of 
life. The illegitimate child of an Emperor of Russia, who was kept con- 
fined in a cell where he could not see the operations of existence about him^ 
and where he could not talk with others, became blighted in mind, like a 
withered bud, for lack of nourishment. In a few years his idiocy was 
established; and was directly traceable to the fact that the brain had no 
associations on which to think and grow. So, if one is placed in the dark 
always, the optic nerves waste away, and the eyes become blind. Use and 
exercise are necessary to the development of any organ. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DVII. 
What the Brain is. — In proof of the doctrine of universal intelli- 
gence, one has only to examine the brain of any animal or human being. 
Physiologists agree of late years to the statement made by us years ago 

18 



274 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOBIE SEVEN. 

that the brain is not confined to the skullj but is located throughout the 
body. It consists of the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla, spinal cord and 
ganglia. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DVIII. 
Location of Mind. — As the concentration of the blood is at the heart 
and lungs, whence it proceeds to all parts of the body ; so the mental con- 
centration is in the skull ; but gray matter in the nervous system anywhere, 
is brain, mind, feeling, and thought. Some claim that all li\;ing flesh is 
mind ; I deem it only intelligence, but am sure that mind is confined to the 
ganglia which contain the gray pulp. These ganglia are nervous centres, 
and are scattered throughout the body. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DIX. 
Mind and Flesh. — Through reliable aids, I have collected certain 
facts which bear upon the presence of mind, not in the flesh, but in the 
nerves of the flesh ; proving that the mental structure of our organism is an 
entirety, and a halo, or indivisible whole. A tooth, on being extracted, 
leaves the scar or wound in the gums. If the tooth is dead or nearly so, its 
absence is never felt ; but a live tooth, if extracted while aching, will leave 
behind a faint feeling of its presence, as though it were still in its place and 
aching. Some have ached severely after being pulled ; but the fact always 
is that only a live tooth has made itself felt after extraction. The principle 
evolved is that the nervous intelligence remains intact, for some time after 
the part that contained it has been removed ; but if the part had died, an 
opportunity for the concentration of the intelligence in the adjoining parts 
had occurred. Out of many illustrations of this principle sent to me from 
authentic sources, I select a few that I have verified repeatedly in experi- 
ences. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DX. 

Mental Entity. — The first of these is the following: A man, whose 

thumb had been amputated ten days before, complained one morning of a 

very severe pain in the end, just at the junction of the nail with the flesh. 

He was at his office at the time ; and, so severe was the pain, he called upon 



LIFE. 275 

his surgeon. — " When did you first notice the feeling ?" — " About ten o'clock. 
I was so sure the thumb was on my hand that I unwrap2)ed the stump and 
looked at it." — " Where is the thumb now ?" — " In my garden. It was 
buried the day it was amputated and I have not thought of it since." — " I 
have had my attention called to this phenomenon before ; and I wish to go 
with you to investigate it." — They went together, and found the gardener 
digging where the thumb had been buried. It was exhumed with the 
greatest care, and a sharp stone was found embedded under the nail. For 
some reason the thumb had been preserved from serious decay. It was 
re-buried, and the sufferer found relief in a few hours afterward. 

A boy lost a hand by accident at a machine. In the excitement that 
followed, neither he nor those who aided him, paid any attention to the lost 
hand. It was in freezing weather. Several days afterward, when the pain 
was much subdued, he suddenly burst out crying, and gave every indication 
of suffering excruciating pain in the place where the hand had been. The 
doctor came and declared that the boy's reason had fled; but the boy insisted 
that his hand was on his arm, and that it was being mashed, and pinched 
and torn. For nearly an hour he continued to roll in agony ; until an old 
soldier-surgeon came in and threw light on the mystery by stating that he 
had known of similar cases, and requested that the hand be found. Several 
of the neighbors went to the mill, and began a search for the missing 
member. In a few minutes it was found in the jaws of a cat, who had been 
gnawing on it for some time. The remains were put in alcohol, and the boy 
became calm. 

A middle-aged, unmarried lady passed through an experience which 
many a soldier can verify. Her left limb was amputated above the knee, 
and the member was buried. Some weeks after she complained of a strain 
between the ankle and knee, as if the limb were being twisted. No one 
paid any attention to this, until she had been kept awake for several nights. 
The leg was then dug up and found to be twisted by the weight over the 
foot, which was lying in a contrary-wise position to the knee. On properly 
re-burying it, they learned that she was feeling better; and in a few minutes 
was free from acute pain. The exhuming was kept secret from her, in 
order to test the question of imagination affecting the belief. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



276 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY - TOME SEVEN. 

LESSON DXI. 
Mental Wholeness. — If Pul-glow can be understood as a pres- 
ence, the mind may be realized. You may call it a knowledge or a con- 
sciousness; it is the same. It is not matter, but holds the same relation to 
flesh that the intelligence of the Atom holds to the Atom itself. 

For Essays on this subject, see " RiUes for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXII. 
Evolution of Mind — Man cannot boast of being the only mental life 
in the earth. Without mentality in his food, he would be less than a vege- 
table. He is the sum of millions of molecules, and his mind is evolved 
from the aggregation of intelligent matter, which is thus brought together. 
Intelligence is everywhere present, in all plant and flesh life ; in types it is 
limited by the scope of the life itself ; in man it is a possibility merely. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXIII. 
Grades. — In smaller life the mind is smaller, and often more intense. 
In the ant there is greater proportionate intelligence than in man. The 
Atom is endowed with thought ; but, like all small species, it is limited to 
its activities. Through grade after grade, there is no end to tlie variations 
of intelligent action, yet the mind is everywhere limited to the life-scope of 
its possessor. Thus, the spider cannot think beyond its web and environ- 
ments ; man may think only where he can go ; Heaven is his mystery ; the 
hereafter is not now known. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXIV. 

Brain. — That which we call the brain is an organ of flesh. It is a 
concentration of mental batteries and storehouses, from the body. Yet it is 
not different in real fact from the ganglia which are everywhere scattered 
through the body. It is a storehouse that may or may not contain the mind. 
It is the house, prepared by the minute intelligence of the flesh particles ; 
its inmate may never come ; or, if come, it may depart before the brain 
dies. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 277 

LESSON DXV. 

Ganglia — These are physical intelligences, composed of the essence of 
the brain, and charged with the life of the nervous system. In an idiot 
they attend to their mental duties ; although they are scattered throughout 
the body. They are concentrated vital matter. In a larger sense, the 
spinal cord is of the same order of mind. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXVI. 
Medulla. — The most interesting part of the brain of flesh life is the 
medulla, situated between the spinal cord and the cerebellum. By it alone, 
man may live ; but only as a vegetable. Its functions are sufficient proof 
that we are of the same kinship as the tree , that all flesh-creation is but a 
diverse part of all vegetation. Man with all his vital energies alert, cannot 
suddenly check the greater brain, without risk of death ; yet its action may be 
gradually lessened, until all life is carried on by the medulla. This brain 
determines whether we shall breathe or die, whether the heart shall beat or 
cease, whether the nerves of the stomach shall assimilate food or not ; in 
other words it has absolute control over the organs of respiration, circulation 
and digestion. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXVII. 
Vegetable Man. — That we are relatives of plant life is seen in the 
action of the medulla. A tree is a unit of being, not a congregation of 
particles. By a concerted action its sap is drawn through the roots to the 
entire tree. Where is the controlling intelligence ? Yet the sap is proto- 
plasm, like the blood of man ; and it moves by the law of circulation, just 
as the blood moves through the body. Both have the same purpose, — to 
convey particles to build up the tissues of the great life of tree or body. 
The propelling and moving power of the two systems vary, and herein is 
the only dijfference, — a very small one. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXVIII. 

Respiration — The lungs are a large tree, beautifully patterned after 
the oak, with trunk, branches and leaves. The latter breathe. So all plants 
breathe through their leaves. Deny them air ; and, like man, they will die. 



278 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

Even fish cannot live in water from which all air has been extracted. 
Where in the tree is the central intelligence which controls its respiration ? 
It cannot be by mechanical or natural forces that the tree breathes, for once 
let its spirit depart, and no law of capillary attraction will draw a single 
particle to its general body. Man and plants are alike endowed with the 
function of respiration. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Pailes for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXIX. 
Digestion — The inner surface of the stomach, through which the 
fibers extend in their search for food, is like the outer coating of the roots 
of trees. The fine fibers are little root-threads that reach after the fine par- 
ticles of food which are to join the sap or blood and be carried into the life 
system of the tree or body. How do the oak roots know what tiny grains 
are necessary to build the giant species ? How do the elm roots know what 
its greater life needs ? How do the fibers of the stomach know what selec- 
tions to make for the proper construction of flesh ? A central spirit, or 
intelligence is present in each. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXX. 

Cerebellum. — The tree has neither cerebrum or cerebellum ; its spirit 
goes only to the medulla. As far as respiration, circulation and digestion 
are concerned, man is the co-equal of the plant ; and knows neither more 
nor less. Flesh-life begins with the addition of the cerebellum, or little 
skull brain. It is located under and back of the great brain. It is 
the power that drives all the voluntary muscles of the body. The 
medulla moves the involuntary muscles. The cerebellum may be the 
agent of the cerebrum in its orderly operations, or when sane ; it may be 
its agent when disordered, and kill without responsibility ; it may act as 
an independent organ. In idiots, the large brain may lack development, yet 
the cerebellum would cause the body to walk, run, stand, sit, go, come, 
build or destroy; while the medulla attends to digestion, respiration and 
circulation, even in cases where the mind is partly or totally affected. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 279 

LESSON DXXI. 
Animal Life. — As the presence of the cerebellum marks the dividing 
line between the plant and the animal being, so its predominance determines 
the rank of the beast from that of man. The human is approached as the 
little brain gives way to the greater ; for owing to the size of the latter the 
possibilities of mind are presented. The back of the head yields to the 
development of the front, and animal nature is lessened even in man. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXII. 

Cerebrum If the soul is apart from the flesh, either as a fact or a 

possibility, it must have its source in the greater brain. Although the horse 
and dog have more common sense than man, they are not called reasoning 
beings, and therefore have always been denied the right to develop or possess 
an immortal soul. They do not appear to exercise their faculties even if 
they have them; and corresponding to this deficiency is the small comparative 
size of the cerebrum. Yet all animals are like man in this regard, except 
in the relative proportion of the brain. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXIIL 
Wonder-life. — We possess bodies whose parts are of wonderful make, 
of most excellent design and purpose ; yet the mangy cur who is kicked 
from our steps is as beautifully, as wonderfully constructed in every part 
and detail. We asked once, What proof have you of the immortality of 
man? The answer was "Because a body so admirably constructed, with 
all its intricate organs and parts, could not be made to perish forever." 
Yet, low down in the scale of life, wonders of construction as great as in 
man may be found ; even the medulla, the cerebellum, and the cerebrum 
performing their functions as well as in the human species. Man's place in 
the Hereafter cannot be reasoned from the intricacies of his physical con- 
struction. Even the best types perish; and these wonders dissolve. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXIV. 
Thinking. — The more the cerebrum develops the more it thinks. 
Thinking develops it; and events develop thinking. Occurrences must 



280 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME SEVEN. 

involve the faculties of a being in order to develop the cerebrum. For 
this reason every form of life has its limitations, and the mind is narrowed 
by them. Yet a dog thinks, though we can only interpret it by its surface 
reflections. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXV. 
Tracing the Mind. — Feed rice and nothing else to a growing child 
for five years, commencing at the age of six. At that time he was ready to 
go to school, had given evidence of a good mind, and was mentally very 
active. After he has had rice for a few weeks he cannot study or even 
think. He gives up school. His body may grow fat, but it cannot acquire 
much strength. He is inclined to stay in doors and sleep by day as well as 
by night. In five years, if he yet lives, he will be insane. On examining 
the rice, it was found to contain no appreciable amount of phosphorus. A 
man would have died on it in much less time. Take a grain of wheat, and 
you will find a certain amount of phosphorous (in combination of course) in 
the corner of the kernel-. Remove this, and feed the flour to a man for a 
month. During that time he will become sleepy, lose his memory, and be 
stupid generally. During the next month feed him the wheat with the phos- 
phorus in each grain. He will begin to grow bright and active, to think 
and remember, and have back his old ambitions in life. In other words 
take phosphorous out of food and you will take the mentality out of it ; 
you will dwarf the minds, the intellectual and moral responsibility, and 
make man a stupid animal, desiring only to sleep. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX DXXVI. 
Phosphorus. — All chemists admit that this element presents, even in 
its commercial condition, many difficulties which make it the most remark- 
able substance known. Nature does not intend that it shall exist in a 
separate form; but assigns it duties in regard to other things. Henry 
Wurtz, a chemist of world-wide reputation, says : Phosphorus to the 
chemist presents the greatest difficulties and perplexities. It is generally 
cast in the form of sticks, which, on account of its dangerous inflammability, 
must be kept under water; as the least friction will cause it to burn. Once 
on fire, a piece of it will burn on water. A little above blood-heat, it 



LIFE. 281 

becomes oily ; this remains so even below the original temperature ; but, 
upon being slightly shaken, it becomes solid again. Its contrarieties show 
great activity and danger. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten 

LESSON DXXVII. 

Dangers. — If taken into the system, it proceeds to accumulate the 
greatest irregularities. Wurtz says : A peculiar feature sets in, — namely, 
jaundice, from fatty degeneration of the liver ; a garlicky breath ; lumin- 
osity of the eructations ai:d sometimes of the secretions ; profound dis- 
turbance of the nervous system, such as delirium, convulsions, coma and 
nervous prostration. After death there is found a profound structural dis- 
integration of the tissues, with special tendency to fatty degeneration of 
many of the organs, and extravasations of blood into their tissues. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXVIII. 

Phosphorescence. — This is a most puzzling phenomenon. It has 
been ascribed to the slow combustion of phosphorus with oxygen. In fact 
so certain were scientists that this is the fact, that they made the assertion 
positive. Of recent years they have all changed their minds. No man's 
opinion is respected more than Wurtz's, and we quote him once more : 
Phosphorescence is a term applied to a very wide range of chemical or 
j)hysico-chemical phenomena, including all those in which light, resulting 
from some process within the body that emits it, is unaccompanied by heat. 
But the phosphorescence of phosphorus itself is truly slow combustion, pro- 
ceeding only in the presence of oxygen; whereas in the greater number of 
cases classed under the term phosphorescence, no oxygen is present, many 
occurring in vacuo. Moreover it has been shown that the light evolved is of 
a diferent nature from ordinai'y light. No more interesting and no more 
obscure kinds of phenomena are known than those that are vaguely classed 
under this term, ^phosphorescence. These phenomena are exhibited by bodies 
belonging to all three kingdoms of Nature — mineral, vegetable, and animal 
— and by the two latter in both life and death, and during both life and 
decay. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



282 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME SEVEN. 

LESSON DXXIX. 
Brain-light. — Our object in quoting direct from science is to fix the 
fact that the light which comes from so-called phosphorescence may or may 
not be combustion ; if combustion it must be classed under the ordinary 
rules of light. Several books and learned writers of articles state that this 
phenomenon never resembles true light, except when phosphorus itself 
causes it ; some slight heat being detected ; but in a vast majority of cases 
its approach to ordinary light is not even claimed. If we look into the eye 
of an excited person or animal, a gleam of light is visible ; especially in a 
dark room. Two things are true : a person may excite in his own brain 
enough light to see in the dark, and anybody may see the two gleaming eyes 
of another if the latter is laboring under excitement, A woman who had 
entered and locked the door of her bed-room, before lighting the gas, saw 
two luminous eyes in the further corner of the room. Having seen the eyes 
of a cat in this condition several time, she did not become alarmed at first. 
As the eyes were elevated at a place where there was nothing for a cat to 
rest upon, she was instinctively led to unlock the door and go out. A man 
was soon discovered standing in the corner. After his arrest and conviction 
he was told of the phenomenon which led to his discovery ; and stated in 
reply that he could see nothing in the room at first ; but, feeling the eyes of 
the woman upon him, he noticed that they suddenly emitted gleams of light. 
This was attributed to her excitement when she saw what was supposed to 
be a cat. There are many proofs of brain light. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXX. 
Food. — What is called phosphorus is more or less related to the brain 
food of man. As a mineral it is poisonous. As a vegetable it is designed 
for man. Its activity is so great and varied that volumes might be written 
on it. Without it the nerves and brain could not have been made, nor could 
vitality, sufficient to run the machinery of the muscles, have been created. 
In other words, it is the life which gives the nerves their power to move the 
muscles, the organs their energy, the brain its gray matter, and the mind its 
vigor. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 283 

LESSON DXXXI. 

Seed-life. — When a plant forms its branches, leaves and fruit, it is 
actuated by this phosphoric principle. To prove it take all the phosphates 
out of the soil and make it as rich otherwise as you please ; nothing will 
grow. The birth of the seed is the crowning work of the plant or tree. 
This occurs by the concentration of the particles of phosphorus which have 
been operated in the growth of the plant. It gives much of its vitality to 
make the seed, having done which it often seems satisfied. Thus, if a rose 
be plucked before its seed is formed, or before it ripens, the bush seeks to 
ripen others until the seed is created. It is well known that many flower- 
ing shrubs will not continue to evolve blossoms if the first installment are 
allowed to go to seed. Upon examination of the seed it will be found that 
phosphorus has been deposited. The first step in mind-life, and soul-life 
if you please, is the seed, and generally the flower or blossom precedes this. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXII. 

Steps Commencing at the flower which marks the coming seed we 

find the first step toward the creation of mind ; for the seeds collect the 
phosphorus, without which no mind could ever have sustenance. In the 
seeds and the grains, or in the flesh of animals fed upon seeds or grains, we 
find phosphorus prepared for the body of man. If he eats it in abundance 
his mind will be active ; if he denies himself his thoughts will wander, and 
the mental control of the body will be lessened. If he thinks hard or 
excitedly his brain will glow with Pul and his excretions will show an 
unusual loss of phosphorus. The more of this he eats the greater will be 
the activity of his mind and the healthier his thoughts and plans. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXIII. 

Responsibility. — Disease of the muscles follows from lack of nitro- 
genous food ; the tissues everywhere break down if not fed, and the brain 
and mind, deprived of phosphorus, become abnormal. Irritability follows 
excitability under slight provocation, and ill-temper, ill-nature, sin and 
crime. I am sure that much of the savage ignorance and wickedness of the 
world are due to feeding on meat, which (if itself is not fed on seeds and 



284 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

grains) must fail to supply the brain nutriment necessary for the highest 
mental responsibility. Argue this question as we may, the facts are too 
clear to admit any doubt as to this proposition. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXIV. 
Soul Nutrition. — Whether the soul is co-existent with life or a meta- 
morphosis after death (and the latter we shall show to be the fact) it must 
depend in a great measure upon the care of the body and the nutriment of 
the physical brain. The problem is an interesting one and worth examining. 
It may be true that a simple-minded, honest, harmless fellow is capable of 
forming an immortal soul, although his goodness depends upon his weak and 
inert mind. With that we have nothing to do at this time. The drift of 
morality is generally affected by the physical condition and care of the 
agents of moral growth, such as pure blood and normal life. It does not 
follow that good health means good morals, for the reverse is more often 
true ; but it is well settled that what might have been a good life has been 
turned to the bad by insufficient nutrition of the brain and body, and espe- 
cially by deposing the sway of the mind. It requires something like a 
healthy body to make a sound brain, and both must be fed. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXV. 

Phosphorus and Mind. — Whether the commercial phosphorus con- 
tains all the life-giving properties demanded by the mind, or, like proto- 
plasm, is deficient in the one mystery of existence when analyzed, remains 
to be seen. It is hardly probable that Nature would permit man to approach 
too near to her processes, especially when the secrets of the soul's origin are 
concerned. We know one thing beyond doubt, and that is that without 
phosphorus there can be no mind and no spirit. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXVI. 
Flower-life. — Of all the created forms of the vegetable kingdom the 
flower is the sweetest and most beautiful. It seems like the bursting forth 
of the better hope of man in an emblem of his happiest prospect. It is the 
child-life of the fruit and seed, and creates the messenger which carries in 
its tiny cells the nourishment of the brain, whose functions are to make the 



LIFE. 285 

soul possible. Each flower, however rich or humble it may be, is kin of the 
angels and the breath of God. It it closest allied to the beauty of heaven, 
and is a letter in the alphabet of immortality. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXVir. 
Forces — The human body is a collection of the forces of nature. 
When man seeks to invent a machine he must obtain a motive power, an 
engine and an engineer. In former days the steam boiler furnished the 
energy ; but now electricity has been utilized. Man is a complete electrical 
machine, and this agent furnishes all the motor ])Ower of his existence. The 
heart is the engine, — for its size the most powerful ever made. His mind is 
the engineer; but as this officer often sleeps or lapses in his duty an auto- 
matic officer, called the medulla, attends to the engine, so that the machine 
never stops. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXVIII. 

Pigment There are in the earth certain fixed molecules, so arranged 

in their composition as to reflect back to the eye the rays of light in a fixed 
mode of vibration. These molecules are called pigment or paint. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXXXIX. 
Color. — As taste is a vibration of active particles and molecules 
against the tongue, interpreted by the nerves to the brain and there made 
conscious, so color is a similar vibration of Atomic lines against the optic 
nerve. The irritation of this nerve is light, and the mode of irritation is 
the color of that light. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXL. 

Skin — The body is protected by an outer covering called the skin. 
This is a cloth of very elegant texture, woven by the fibrin of the blood 
with the nitrogen of the atmosphere as we might weave a garment to wear. 
It is made by Nature to suit every condition and climate. Sometimes it is 
covered by hair to protect it against extraordinary cold, and, where exposed, 
the body has a growth of hair in special places, as on the face and head. 
The skin changes its shape to suit the form of the body ; but its most 
marked variation is its color. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



286 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

LESSON DXLI. 
Skin Color. — There are two layers to the skin : the under or real 
covering being called the cutis. It is very sensitive ; and, were it not for 
its outer cover, the cuticle (little cutis), it would be a source of constant 
agony. This we know when the slightest scratch removes the cuticle, and 
exposes the tender skin beneath. The cuticle is a protector simply ; if the 
body is subjected to hard usage in any part, the cuticle thickens ; as is seen 
when walking with bare feet for a few days. In the deeper cells of the 
cutis are the pigment particles, or coloring-matter ; and the activity of these 
determines the color of the skin in a race or individual member of a race. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXLIL 
Complexion. — This pigment has much to do with some important 
considerations affecting our position among created life. Physiologists 
as8ume that all members of the human family, from the savage wild-man 
to the intellectual Caucasian, are endowed with the same fundamental quan- 
tity and quality of pigment; but that the action of sun and climate regulates 
the race-color and complexion. Thus one may be white who lives in a 
country where the sun is not active; another may be black whose skin is 
subjected to the intense heat necessary to draw the dark pigment to the 
surface. If these propositions are strictly true, then we are all one great 
family, bound together by ties of blood and common interests. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXLIII. 

Skin- Colors — It is true, as may be easily seen among Caucasians, that 
the action of the sun affects the complexion. In summer we are tanned ; 
and physiologists say that the pigment has been drawn to the surface of the 
skin. This is not true. Pigment, as may be easily proved, comes from the 
deep cells of the cutis and saturates the thick under skin, not the outer 
cuticle. The tanning of the summer sun affects only the latter, and is not 
skin deep. Pigment is a ■permanent color ; tan is temporary. The hue of 
the negro never leaves him and cannot be scraped off. We shed our 
cuticle constantly, flake by flake, and with it goes all temporary stains. 
Freckles are examples of real pigment from the cutis beneath. They are 



LIFE. 287 

abnormal developments of this coloring matter, and are located in the 
cutis; the wearing away of the cuticle does not remove them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays, " at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXLIV. 
Changes. — If a white man goes to the equator to live, he becomes 
dark and swarthy. Examination will show that his color is not due to a 
drawing of the real pigment from the deep skin, but to the painting of the 
outer skin with the combined action of the air and sun. When he returns 
to a colder and less exposed climate, this paint will be removed, the time 
depending upon its hardness and depth. I have seen a sailor, who had 
crossed the equator many times, remove a deep tan by years of confinement 
in doors. The Jews of the northern climes are white, and of the southern 
climes are swarthy. A reverse of countries will always partially counteract 
these conditions. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXLV. 

Temperament Color. — We may say that all beings have pigment ; 
that of the Caucasian is called flesh color. But intermarriage has intro- 
duced some of the pigment from other races ; and once in the blood it will 
be transmitted through the ids to all generations in an almost mathematical 
proportion. The food we eat also deposits pigment in the cutis. Thus let 
a manufacturer of chocolate add mineral coloring matter to it ; let a white 
person eat or drink it constantly ; and soon the general hue of the under 
skin will change; and exposure to sun or weather will draw this pigment 
to the skin in the form of freckles. Temperament is an eliminator or 
dogger of the skin and its substance. Very morose people have sluggish 
livers, and the pigment from the food, which should have been excreted, 
remains in the blood and becomes a part of the cutis ; thus making all sorts 
of hues and complexions, even in the white race. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXLVI. 

Evolution in the Species. — There is abundant proof of a continual 
influence of change which may be called evolution in the species ; but there 
is not a single fact in Nature which indicates an evolution of the species. 



288 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

Each is bound by its own limitations, fixed, unapproachable and eternal. 
Modifications, under influences, will vary the individuals; and breeding, in 
certain apparent limits, will vary the types ; but a species never oversteps 
its bounds. It is to these evidences of evolution in the species, that the 
world owes the doctrine of sjjeculative evolution, founded upon facts that 
have no breadth of scope, although clear and certain as far as they go. 
The clearest refutation of Darwinism is the now well authenticated fact 
that, as soon as the modifying influences are withdrawn, even the species 
rebounds to its fixed normal average. Thus man's intellect is evolved from 
his activities under the culture of education. Let the influence be with- 
drawn, and humanity relapses to a fixed average mixture of good and bad, 
living chiefly in the senses. Morality is the evolution of the good seeking 
to extricate itself from the meshes of the bad. 

For Essays ou this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXLYII. 

Races. — A mark is set on each of the five great divisions of humanity. 
The Caucasians are those people whose cutis is saturated with the flesh-colored 
pigment, called white; the Indians have a cutis of red pigment ; the Negroes 
of black ; the Mongolians of yellow ; and the Malayans of brown. There 
are other divisions of the races, but these five include all mankind in the 
general divisions of earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXLVIII. 
Fixed Types. — These are fixed types, and are incapable of fluctuation, 
even under the influences of sun and weather. Thus no amount of indoor 
life will eradicate the yellow from the Chinese, or make the negro paler. 
Where offspring from intermarriage is possible, the result is a mathematical 
one. A white and black will produce a half-breed, or mulatto ; a white 
and mulatto will produce a quarter-breed, or quadroon ; a white and quad- 
roon will produce an eighth-breed, or octoroon ; and so on. No matter 
what the climate or sun or temperament may be, the result is an exact 
division of pigment-matter by arithmetical rule. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 289 

LESSON DLXIX. 
Characteristics. — So fixed are the characteristics of each of the five 
great races that it does not seem possible that they are descended from one 
original parent. The Bible declares in the most positive terms that Cain, 
the earliest of the Caucasian born, went into the land of Nod and took to 
himself a wife; a statement which is as authentic as the Jewish tradition, 
and which must stand or fall with it. Without the tradition we have no 
account of the origin of man ; with it we are positive that more than the 
Caucasian race existed from the beginning of humanity. No amount of 
explanation or side-tracking of this statement will change the face of it. 
Not only this, but the law of - necessity, paramount in all times, confirms 
what the fixed characteristics of each race teach, — that the doctrine of di- 
versity applies to man, that the races sprang from original varieties of life, 
that they have never been related, that they never can or will become amal- 
gamated, and that the purposes and possibilities of each are widely different. 
We have hoped and even now wish otherwise ; but, as we do not make or 
mold the laws of life, we must accept the facts as we find them, and conform 
our conduct to the demands of Nature. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DL. 
Two Divisions — I find but two divisions of human beings : the 
Caucasians and the anti-racials. In the latter I include all the races of the 
world outside of the Caucasians. The race of Holy Writ was Caucasian. 
The twelve tribes were Caucasians; and the attemjit to account for the races 
of earth, the Indians, Negroes, Mongolians and Malayans, and their branches, 
on the theory that they are descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, is 
both un-Biblical and unscientific, as well as untrue from every point of view. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLL 

Caucasian Supremacy. — All civilization of the past and j)resent has 
been confined to the Caucasian race. I defy any person to mention an anti- 
racial who is capable of real civilization, even under the softening influences 
of moral culture. No matter how many they may adopt of the improve- 
ments of invention there is always the uncertainty in the eye and the reserve 
in the heart ; and when left to themselves they relapse to their average con- 

19 



290 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

dition. On the other hand, the Caucasians were the chosen people of God 
and the earth. Christ and His apostles were all Caucasians, as were the 
Greeks and Romans, who bore the banner of culture and knowledge in the 
dawning era of the new cycle. The nations of progress and moral hope 
have been, and always will be, exclusively Caucasian. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLII. 
Fixed Barbarism. — Out of unnumbered millions of American Indians 
of the last three hundred years a few score have been civilized (?). This 
small handful, if left to themselves, would quickly pass to their average 
racial condition. To hold them up as a basis on which to place the hope 
that other anti-racials may be likewise civilized is to select a falsehood for 
the first premise of an argument. Even if the other anti-racials are semi- 
civilized, they are also semi-barbarous ; and their best condition is but a 
degree of savage life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLIIl. 
Negroes. — This race is held up as an example of the possibilities of 
ultra-civilization. For this reason I have had the most exhaustive examina- 
tions made of their habits, their progress under the impulses of culture, and 
their moral status in every phase of life. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLIV. 
Imbecility. — In a murder trial, where the defense was the mental 
irresponsibility of a full-blooded negro, I heard physicians of undoubted 
fairness, one being a government hospital surgeon, declare that sixty per 
cent, of all negroes were imbeciles ; and this statement was concurred in by 
medical experts on the other side, who testified that such imbecility, while it 
made crime easy, did not wholly excuse the criminal. It was further stated 
that of the other forty per cent., no full-blooded negro was free from some 
mental deficiency. A share of this taint passed into the offspring of alliances 
with the Caucasians. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



I 



LIFE. 291 

LESSOX DLV. 

Fear The degrees of fear furnish the whole moral and religious code 

of the negroes and their anti-racial offspring, until a major part of the blood 
is Caucasian, when they seem to come under the rules and influences of this 
race. The relaxation of fear leads to every kind of crime ever written or 
known ; while the sway of fear holds them to a severe moral life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLVI. 
Slavery — Every negro I have ever met who graduated from slavery 
was honest, obedient, sincere and polite ; and every negro who was other- 
wise trained, was a thief, sullen and treacherous. This is not an argument 
for slavery ; but a representation of the' control which a severe discipline 
has over those who are not mentally prepared to care for themselves. The 
freeing of millions of irresponsible anti-racials was a necessity, but at the 
same time a fearful crime against civilization. I am of the North, and hate 
human slavery. Nevertheless I sympathize with a country whose progress 
is blighted by a cloud, the gloom of which palls the very heart of patriotism. 
This freedom takes the fair goddess of liberty by the throat, and imbeds the 
dagger of hatred in every respectable life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLVII. 
Hatred — I will tell you why lynching will never be suppressed in the 
South. Once in conversation with a Northern man, a violent defender of 
the negroes of a section of America of which he knew absolutely nothing, I 
made the proposition to him that we visit in person the best representatives 
of Southern Africans. We avoided the settlements known to be notoriously 
lawless, and found a very respectable and even model colony. Their decency 
was said to be due to the fact that they were only one generation removed 
from the slaves of ante-bellum days. We found an old negress bewailing the 
death of her daughter, the victim of drugs given her by a married neg'ro to 
hide her shame with him. We found that fifty-eight children out of one 
hundred were bastards, and all by colored parents. The entire colony were 
thieves, and nearly one-fourth of them lived by their lawlessness. That 
very week an old negress had received the wages for a month's hard labor 
(the old women seem to work hard) ; and was robbed of it by four relatives, 



292 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

all ugly, vicious men. The colored parson had been in jail for chicken 
stealing. The children did not and would not go to school. All the darkies 
who worked, sought immediate payment, and would not return to work 
as long as the money lasted. They ate cake and pies, and drank whatever 
they could get. The records showed that, during the ten preceding years, 
these anti-racials had caused the death of eighteen whites, and forty-eight of 
their own race ; had done nothing for their own advancement; had raised at 
the rate of seven children for every loss by natural death; had supported 
a lively church with a steady decrease of morality ; and were in every sense 
a blight on the country, a disgrace to the human form, and a thoroughly 
hated people. As they would not work, it was hard to handle the crops ; 
for their presence deterred white laborers from mingling with them, or 
coming into the country. The only negroes who are better than these, in 
the South, are those who are scattered on plantations, far from the influences 
of one another. It is a pleasing fact that, individually, they often labor 
right along during a season. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLVIII. 
Religion. — I have tried to analize the sincerity of those who profess to 
be converted. We know how easy it is, in times of distress, to turn to the 
church; and, in times of prosperity, to forget our vows. In this respect the 
negroes are thoroughly human. Many of them have been baptized a num- 
ber of times. It is easily proved that they will, as they go from place to 
place, seek the acquaintance of the church, profess never to have been bap- 
tized and be received anew. Thus it seems that their chief purpose is to 
attract attention and to be fondled. In the narrow channels of slavery 
discipline they knew no motive, but clung faithfully to their faith. This 
was training rather than religion. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLIX. 

Honesty Very few Caucasians are honest. The same rigorous 

training that shaped the minds of the slaves has made white men trust- 
worthy. A dog or horse is capable of dishonesty ; and very few, if any, 
animals of prey have an honest drop of blood in their bodies. Stealth is 



LIFE. 293 

the first exhibition of deception ; some animals resorting to every trick that 
could suggest itself to a human being, in order to reach their prey ; and 
when subterfuge fails they pretend to sleep, and thus capture the unsuspect- 
ing wanderers. Pages could be written of the tricks of animals, and the 
wonderful ingenuity of their minds. It would not follow, therefore, that 
the Caucasians and anti-racials are brothers because the spirit of dishonesty 
is common to both; for, on this argument, the Caucasians and animals of 
the lowest types could be made of one blood. While not excusing the 
prevalance of this sin among the noblest of earth's races, it is yet a fact 
that the negroes are naturally and instinctively more deceptively dishonest. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLX. 
Moral Deficiency. — I do not regard the negro, considering his status, 
more culpable in crime than the white race. His fault is one which may be 
corrected outwardly rather than inwardly; and herein lies the test of the 
development of the future soul. To hastily present a rule for experimental 
purposes in determining the greatest problem of existence, would degrade 
any study or theory; and for this reason the most careful application of this 
test has been made under my supervision, as far as life affords the oppor- 
tunities. A steady and unvarying uniformity of result must have some 
permanent value in the philosophy of life. For the good of our common 
humanity, is it not your duty to investigate these problems for yourselves. 
Nothing is valuable that is wrapped up in one mind, or one school of thought. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXI. 

Test of Humanity Let us first understand the test which is to be 

applied to humanity, and then we will apply it. The proposition is this : 
A created being whose moral nature may be educated from inward influences, 
is capable of developing an immortal soul; all others are not. This is stated 
in simple language so that it may be easily understood. The operations of 
this test have occupied many years of the profoundest study and investiga- 
tion. Many proofs will be given in a subsequent Tome. The abstract 
propositions of dry ethics form no part of this study. Living humanity in 
all phases should lie before us on the dissecting table. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 



294 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

LESSON DLXII. 
Outward Morality. — A tree has intelligence, both as an entire being 
and in all the details of its life ; but it is devoid of moral nature. It is 
capable of being led in many directions of growth and culture, but this 
is due to the fact that its intelligence seeks the easiest means of expression. 
A bird, if judged by the wrong it does, is a higher moral being than man ; 
yet it often practices deception. It is a monogamist, remaining faithful to 
its marriage vows; it loves, affiliates, mourns, and shows many passions. Its 
life is affected by outward influences, and never by inward morality. A 
horse is a moral animal ; remembers the consequences of previous acts, and 
governs himself accordingly. The famous St. Bernard dogs possess a real 
love for human beings ; but repeated tests show this to be an outward 
education, prompted from an instinct within. An ordinary dog is trained 
to not steal when hungry, and will sit in the presence of meat a long while 
before he will touch it. He remembers previous correction. His fear of 
giving offence, and not a moral impulse, keeps him honest. This is training 
or discipline ; and its natural hardihood made our American slaves the best 
moral people of the earth in their time ; and even sailors are classed among 
the most honest of men. This animal morality is not born of impulses 
within ; but in the case of beasts and certain classes of humanity, is the 
result of severe discipline, originating in fear and becoming a fixed habit or 
second nature. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXIII. 
Experiment. — Put a sum of money in a place where a person knows 
there is not the slightest possibility of its being missed, and where detection 
of theft is out of the question. Who would not take it? What motive 
affects the negro? Discarding those who are known to be dishonest, and 
whose faces are crime beaten, I have often tested the good old honest darkies. 
It is a fact that slaves will not steal, even when detection is out of the ques- 
tion; but the reason for this has been stated. The negro, left to the rebound 
of his real nature, is universally dishonest. Among large numbers I have 
often heard the remark : " There's an honest face," but the owner of the 
best negro face of to-day is as ready to steal as any other. The chief fact 
is the readiness with which they steal. The slow process of temptation 



LIFE. 296 

which often operates in the moral nature of a dog is wholly dispensed with 
in the case of anti-racials. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXIV. 
Trained Honesty. — A. Chinaman, coming from a country where petty 
offences are punished by terrible tortures, would naturally possess a second 
habit of honesty ; and such appears to be the case with the imports ; but let 
them once understand that the consequences of crime are graded to the 
offences, and that detection is difficult in this country, the rebound of their 
nature will be quickly seen. We must learn the difference between trained 
or animal morality on the one hand, and conscience from inward impulses on 
the other. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at tlie end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXV. 

Conscience As we shall see in the subsequent Tomes, there are 

two kinds of conscience ; one that results from outward training, and 
one that originates from within. Among the children of the best families of 
New York are those who would suffer from the pangs of conscience, if they 
were to steal ; and this without reference to the question of detection. A 
boy once told me that he took a dollar bill from the money-drawer of his 
employer ; a week passed ; it was not and could not be missed ; vet he 
thought of it night and day, and had no relief until he put it back ; then a 
load fell from his heart. Among other children of New York City, as I 
know from personal investigation, and as many others know, there are 
thousands who are trained to steal. It is their avocation, their religion, 
their day study, thought and care. If they succeed in their thefts, a happi- 
ness of heart and buoyancy of countenance are at once visible ; but let them 
fail to steal on any day they are conscience smitten ; they suffer in the 
same way as the children whose education has made theft a sin. Words 
cannot depict this operation of conscience ; and before any moralist seeks to 
pass judgment on these facts, he should visit the wretched hovels of New 
York. With this knowledge before us we must modify our definition of 
conscience. The weightier problem is presented : if conscience is a second 
nature, may not the good as well as the bad be the result of mere training? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'" at the end of Tome Ten 



296 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

LESSON DLXVI. 
Inherent Conscience. — The consequences of wrong doing, unless 
they are material and immediate, have no weight with an ordinary negro, 
nor with any anti-racial, whose ignorance has not been duped by some 
horrible myth. The '^ night doctor" keeps many darkies indoors; but this 
is only after dark. Indians were rarely deterred from crime by supersti- 
tion. The Mongolians, until they throw off their superstitions, which are 
founded upon the densest ignorance, refrain from certain deeds ; but no act 
of morality on their part indicates the slightest presence of inherent good- 
ness. Judged by every test, these Asiatics are saturated with gross natural 
wickedness as a mass; and the best of them possess nothing higher in the 
scale than diplomatic morality. The negroes are far lower than their Mon- 
golian relatives. On the other hand, through repeated tests under circum- 
stances that admit no doubt, many Caucasians have been found whose re- 
ligion is innate, who are honest for the sake of being honest, who account 
daily to their God as to one who is pleased with goodness ; and here are 
evidences of inherent morality and true conscience. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXVII. 
Depths. — Any person who is at all familiar with the inner lives of 
some men and women, must know that there is such a thing as a real desire 
to be good, regardless of ostentation, reward or punishment. Many a 
time in the depths far beneath the surface of human action, I have 
heard the remark, " I do not care so much for the consequences as 
I do to live aright." Among the plain people, the great middle classes, 
such lives are abundant. The strata beneath them are generally mentally 
diseased, as there is no other excuse for abject poverty ; and the upper 
classes are nervously diseased, living on the excitement of a false ambi- 
tion. As in the past, so now and always, we must look to the great 
middle classes for the truest evidences of moral worth. They are the 
channels of all religion, civilization and progress. Had they been edu- 
cated earlier in the world's history, instead of being purposely kept in 
ignorance and under the heel of religious superstition, the face of this 
planet would have been changed. Among them may be found that which 
is lacking in all anti-racials, — an inward, inherent desire to be good for the 



LIFE. 297 

sake of being good. This is the test of soul-possibility ; that is, without it, 
no human body could give birth to an immortal soul. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXVIII. 
The Immortal — The horse is a noble animal, in growth and structure 
a type of physical perfection, in skill and action an example of bodily 
achievement; yet, with an organic completeness as com})lex as man's, he is 
not a created being whose moral nature may be educated from inward influ- 
ences ; he is not, therefore, capable of giving birth to an immortal soul. 
He may be bred and trained to beauty of form and growth ; so may a tree. 
All animals, less than humanity, are likewise soulless ; at least to the extent 
of becoming immortal. We are left with the human species as the only 
possible soul-bearers. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXIX. 
Degrees of Humanity. — Excluding the approaches to the human 
family, — and they seem of all degrees of intelligence, — we find the five 
great races of men before us, to answer to the question. What hope have 
you of immortality ? Were the races separable, the study would be far 
easier; but they have much in common, love, hatred, avarice and instinct; 
they are all human, if these are sole evidences of humanity. Yet we find 
in the study of love among men, every degree of this passion from the 
tender, bird-like caress, to the brutal animal coarseness; establishing not a 
common humanity but a common nature among all races and all life. We 
find that the dog, horse, cat, elephant, and all aniinals acquire a fixed hatred 
for human beings; that avarice is very common among some animals and 
generosity among others; and that instinct is the guide of all beings pos- 
sessing a medulla oblongata, or similar intelligence. With the exception of 
a higher degree of reasoning faculties, the ties that bind us to the anti-racials, 
also bind us and them to the animal kingdom generally ; and in every class 
there are innumerable grades and degrees of the same passion and emotion. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXX. 
Mother Love — From the common breeder of the lowest classes to 
the society woman who does not desire children, we see exhibited imme- 



298 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

diately after birth in the average cases of all grades of females the same 
mother-love, fondness and natural affection which tempt the lioness to 
defend her young at the cost of her life. Paint this tenderness in what- 
ever poetry you will, call it far more refined and delicate in one race than 
in another, or in women than among beasts, it is the same in fact always 
and everywhere. The hen is patient, loving and most careful of her chicks; 
the dog-mother exhibits extraordinary intelligence in her affection for the 
big-headed pups who draw their life from her mammals ; the cat is the 
queen of mothers for some weeks; the cow and horse are happy in their 
exhibitions of affection for the young; and the birds set many moral 
examples for the women of our race. The sacrifice of children, the 
throwing of them into the waters, or tossing them to wild animals to 
devour, are acts of barbarity reserved for the human family. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXI. 
Sensualism. — We employed a colored girl, young and well built, 
descended from a mulatto and black. In three days she was in love with 
a young mulatto, who before that time had given his heart, his life, his 
soul's devotion to a long succession of darky queens. Among this race, 
love may spring forth in a minute, burn with an intensity that outparallels 
the records of the past, and change to coldness with equal speed, if a new 
charmer appears. Birds are true to their mates. The dog travels to all 
mates. The negro adds wrong, bigamy, adultery and incest to his full 
fledged dog disposition. Fear of the law alone checks his animal nature. 
In the examination of thousands of cases I have never yet found one 
instance where there was a single indication of anything more than sen- 
sualism, — a thing often called love. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXII. 

Barbarism. — The evidence is likewise conclusive of the marital love 
among Indians. Burning with a nature common to all created masculines, 
animal or human, they sometimes pretended to woo ; but their brute passions 
made a slave of the female, whose toil and drudgery were but part of the 
cruel lives inflicted upon them. Among all races, except the Caucasian, 



LIFE. 299 

women and wives are degraded. Love cannot exist until the fairer sex are 
in their proper place. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXIIL 
Love. — I do not believe that the real passion of love is known to 
animals or anti-racials. Among the latter it is incompatible with their 
natures to place woman where she belongs. Neither by instinct, education 
nor moral culture do they know how to respect their wives or daughters. 
In the great empire of India, even under sway of the British, the old 
custom of selling a daughter or wife still prevails. For a few hundred 
rupees one can buy for his concubine a beautiful girl just budding into 
womanhood ; and when he is tired of her, she may return home to be sold 
again. We must learn the difference between passion and love. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXIV. 

Puberty. — Connected with the testes of woman, is the ovarian system 
with its nerves that lead to the genital organs. In man, in similar testes, 
are nerves that lead to his genital organs. Long before birth the ids that 
carried the power of developing this sexual system were hidden away in 
little spores of cells; all through the years of youth they were developing 
the fruit of their own existence; and at a proper state of maturity they 
ripen. The period of ripening varies with the person, ranging from eleven 
to seventeen years of age. When the process commences, it is called 
puberty. New cells are rapidly formed, growth increases, pressure and 
excitement ai'e brought to bear upon the nerves; they, by sympathy, extend 
to the entire body; brain, heart and breasts being involved ; and the person 
is ready to fall in love. Nature is at the helm, and her great goal is 
re-production. The strongest impulse in a healthy life during the first few 
years after the age of puberty is to re-produce ; and this is the animal part 
of love. For it no one is to blame ; without it no man can feel the passion 
of all passions. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rides for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXV. 
Dual Sensations — There are, in all bodies capable of bearing an 
immortal soul, spiritual doubles of the form senses of the cerebrum, or great 



300 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

brain. We learn that there are five senses : taste, smell, sight, hearing, 
touch. Taste is the direct agent of the medulla, and part of the digestive 
system. It awakens no spiritual feelings. Smell is dual : it conveys 
information to the medulla, and also carries the fragrance of beautiful 
flowers to the mind. Sight is the great sense of the brain, and the closest 
ally between Nature and the soul. Hearing, like smell and sight, is dual, 
and in its higher aspirations interprets beautiful music and pleasant tones to 
our nobler being. Touch is contact, either common-place and material ; or 
sensitive to the feelings of a finer nature. Sensualism is the excitement of 
nervous touch. Love is the combination of the diviner parts of these senses. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXVI. 
Diverse Life. — In diverse life we would expect to find a commonness 
of all things; and nowhere exclusive possession. If we saw that love and 
hatred were parts of the nature of the Caucasians only, we would know that 
this race was a distinct creation, and not a diverse part of other classes of 
beings. If we found that mother- love existed among negroes only, and not 
among Caucasians and all animals, we would be sure that the negroes were 
<}reated by themselves under a separate fiat. The great fact is that all life 
is diverse ; that even vegetation is inseparable from the animal kingdom ; 
that what appears in the human being is present in degree in some grades 
of animals ; and what appears in animals is present in some grades of 
humanity. Under the law of diversity there is an overlapping of all the 
a,ttributes. A man of the noblest character may be free from the sensualism 
of the beast, but some man will possess it. All things are common ; but 
individuals may be free from that which most prevails in their species. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXVII. 
Soul- Attributes. — As the vegetable kingdom, the lower animals and 
man possess in common all the attributes of life, we would expect to see 
evidences of the soul in all creation. By analysis we know that the body is 
necessary to the soul, and that vegetation is necessary to the body. In plant 
life we see the first glimpses of the beauty of the soul in the flowers that 
please the eye, whose fragrance is more wonderful than man's deepest 
invention. In animals we find the dividing work of the Evil One, the con- 



LIFE. 301 

centration of that which is bad ; yet among these dumb creatures are evi- 
dences of a thought, a glimpse beyond the grave. Up the scale, through 
horrors of savage creation, we come to man, the highest result of the war 
between the forces of good and evil ; and we have no right to be surprised 
if we find a soul-yearning present in many specimens of anti-racial life. 
The very law of diversity implies that. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXVIII. 
Anti-racials. — In lesser degree than the Caucasians, the anti-racials 
possess certain soul-attributes. Their best individuals are morally far better 
than the worst Caucasians, although the latter are capable of greater advance- 
ment. These facts should be carefully understood. With the attributes of 
soul-life overlapping everywhere, the only question is, Are the anti-racials 
capable of giving birth to immortal souls? In a large volume which I hope 
one day to publish and present to these students of philosophy, I shall 
examine the question very fully. Enough has already been stated in this 
work to raise a doubt as to the right of the opposing races to dwell upon the 
earth. It must be remembered that the Caucasians are just beginning their 
education, and that in their long lapse of ignorance they were powerless to 
meet their enemies. To-day they are insinuating themselves into the national 
life of every government of earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXIX. 
Extermination. — The American Indians are practically extinct. 
Three other races remain to oppose the Caucasians: all three grossly inferior 
in body, mind and morality ; all obstacles in the way of progress. If no off- 
spring were born, it would require but one generation to end them, as far as 
a future race is concerned. What rights have the Caucasians ? In the first 
place they have no rights at all, until they qualify themselves to use them. 
There are certain things to be done in and among themselves before they 
may claim power over their fellow-beings. When they have done these, 
then I assert that they shall have the right to exterminate in one generation, 
without bloodshed or cruelty, all the anti-racials of earth, and prepare the 
way for the onward march of the religion and civilization that are destined 
to conquer the earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



302 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 



LESSOX DLXXX. 
Caucasian Unity. — In the first place a canvas or census should be 
made of all the Caucasians in the world ; and the facts proposed should be 
placed before them. A law should be passed prohibiting inter-marriage. It 
is already a felony in some parts of the United States for a negro and white 
person to marry. In a part-breed where the predominance is Caucasian, the 
person should not be classed as an anti-racial. By law and common consent 
to princijjles of unity, all Caucasians should be banded together for the pur- 
pose of carrying religion and civilization throughout the world. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXXI. 

Education. — The next great step is compulsory education. Crime 
and ignorance go together. Morality must take the place of superstitious 
religion, and education should be made compulsory. Certain common 
courses should be required of every child, and no trade, occupation or pro- 
fession should be permitted until a fixed standard had been reached in all 
cases. No boy or girl is educated who cannot read the pages of history in 
the average size books, and understand the meanings of all the words ; 
besides which mathematics, grammar, rhetoric, anatomy, and the laws of 
health are requisite in every common education. Beyond these the course 
may be optional with the scholar. I believe the thorough study of anatomy 
to be one of the surest means of preventing the development of morbid 
minds and criminal tendencies. So much depends upon compulsory educa- 
tion that it should be ordered by law in all states, as it is now in many ; and 
the law should be rigidly enforced. Anarchy can have no foothold in a 
country of educated people. But the law is not enforced. Over half of 
all the children are growing up in ignorance, even in states where compulsory 
education is ordered by law. People are careless. The slums are not send- 
ing their children to school. They should be made to do so. It is these 
children who breed crime, and through whom the criminal classes are pro- 
pagated. They are the bacteria, the bacilli, the DEVS of earth. At what- 
ever cost or trouble they should be educated or weeded out. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 303 

LESSON DLXXXII. 
Marriage. — Neither an ignorant person nor a criminal should be given 
permit to marry. As already suggested, a certain fixed standard should be 
required as a common school education ; a certificate of which should pre- 
cede the right to enter a trade or profession, to vote or to marry. These 
claims may be attached as visionary. I shall be disappointed if the agents 
of the Evil One do not attach every good proposition. But it is not vision- 
ary to claim that, before a person embarks on the sea of life, he should have 
a reasonably strong ship, and should know the early principles of sailing. 
People jump into matrimony as a child jumps overboard; the question of 
swimming never having been considered. But marriage means more than it 
seems. It leads to joy or sorrow in two lives ; to good or bad offspring ; 
to home or hell ; to the making or marring of one of the functions of a 
nation's life. Why should ignorant people marry ? They follow merely 
the dictates of selfishness, and are unwilling to provide for their future off- 
spring. It is not true that great men are sometimes born of ignorant par- 
ents. There is no evidence of even a single case of such birth. Ignorance 
begets ignorance and crime. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXXIII. 
Divorce. — I believe in marriage not only once, but always. Milton 
would have married a dozen times, if necessary to preserve his home. Once 
let the law prohibit marriage except to persons properly educated, and the 
divorce courts will reduce their work. It is a disgrace, not on individuals, 
but on the law- makers and on the nation behind them, that marriage is so 
easy to accomplish ; but as long as it is looked upon as a mere contract and 
so constructed in law, divorce is its twin-sister and a proper and justifiable 
proceeding. Some people cannot possibly live together ; their presence is 
actually obnoxious, while agreeable to others. The law that permitted such 
a misfit should sunder it. In other cases, drunkenness, crime, and brutal 
abuse fill the home life of some innocent wife ; her duty to herself requires 
legal separation. No civilization and no God of justice ever intended that 
a human being should go through life linked to the devil. A person whom 
the looseness of the law has led into a mesalliance, and who eats the dead 
fruit of a blighted life rather than seek to undo the knot and enter upon a 



304 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

career of honor and usefulness, is unjust to self and the world. Better still 
reform the law of marriage and make divorce impossible. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXXIV. 

Principles — Principles are one thing; their enforcement another. 
When I state a philosophical principle, I do not always mean that it is 
enforcible ; but that its practicability must sometimes depend upon condi- 
tions precedent. Every principle is right ; if it is not enforcible, the 
people are wrong, not the principle ; and the longer the people remain wrong, 
the unhappier they will be. Misery is born of error. This life is full of 
sorrow ; but every ill is traceable to some wrong which the people refuse to 
make right. All ills could be suppressed, if the good men and women 
would lay aside the fear of the devil's abuse, and unite in a series of con- 
sistent efforts to suppress them. Throughout this philosophy I have laid 
down the principles of life, things founded in right ; and confidently expect 
that the time will come when they will force themselves to the front and 
become law ; and this, simply because they are right. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXXV. 
Heroic Government. — I believe in a government of stern heroism, 
founded not upon the consent of ignorant voters, not upon the consent of the 
slums, not upon the consent of sensational newspapers, not upon the consent 
of bartenders, drunkards, gamblers and law-breakers, but upon principles ; 
upon laws of rectitude, promulgated not by demagogues and politicians, but 
by the representatives of good people drawn out of all the parties and 
banded together for the one common purpose of purifying the nation. How 
the foundations for such a government may be laid is told in the Ideal City, 
following this Tome. Once founded, it is not a difficult matter for good 
men and women to enforce all the principles of this philosophy. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXXVI. 

Parentage. — ^I look into the laws of Nature and find that it is more 

difficult to stop a stream once started than to choke it at its fountain-head. 

Let us select one thousand criminals; for their crimes we have a right to 

punish them ; after their terms of imprisonment they go forth upon the 



LIFE. 305 

world, and many become fathers and mothers. Children born of criminals 
have a hard fight against the DEVS which are lodged in their bodies in fear- 
ful majorities. Try ever so hard the tendencies crop out ; in some mental 
lapse the good influences are forgotten ; the nerves give way and the deed is 
done. Why permit the parentage of criminals? Let the law read, as many 
eminent physicians have advised, that all male convicts shall be deprived of 
their testes, whenever their crime involves such moral turpitude as may be 
inherited. The operation need not be dangerous, and the convict suffers no 
real loss. As a eunuch his life may be far more blessed than as a criminal. 
The drift of medical opinion favors this procedure, and it will one day 
become the right-hand law of civilization ; on the principle that the pre- 
vention of crime is far more humane than the barbarism of cells and 
scaffolds. 

For Essays ou this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXXVII. 
Racial Extinction. — Let us apply the heroic principles of humanity 
and civilization to the lawless herds of negroes who infest the South. 
They are in our way. They are of no use to themselves, nor to mankind. 
Yet they are not to blame for being in the world. Their ancestors were 
imported by crime from Africa. We cannot send them to that tribal country ; 
for there their relatives are engaged in a warfare that removes the surplus 
population through murder and torture. We cannot thrust them into a 
colony in this country, for the Constitution guarantees them liberty and pro- 
tection in the pursuit of happiness. We do kill them openly and privately; 
but this is wrong, even if they are guilty. With inferior mental endow- 
ment and a dwarfed moral stature, they do not stand on the same plane of 
responsibility as we do ; and more should be forgiven them than us. That 
they are hounded, cursed and hated, is too true ; and this breach widens per- 
ceptibly as the horrible increase of their population carries the stench of 
immorality into the homes of would-be law abiding citizens. The problem 
is a deep one. They are bringing children into the world faster than the most 
prolific Germans or Irish, the rate being more than two to one. That the 
census does not and cannot report them, may be seen from comparing the 
reports with the known facts of any locality. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 
20 



306 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

LESSON DLXXXyill. 

Eunuchs. — A. eunuch is a gentleman deprived of his testes, or repro- 
ducing seeds. In all times he has been happy, healthy, and prosperous. 
Although in many countries eunuchs have been used as women's attendants, 
in many ages and climes they have been honored with high official rank. 
They outlive the average man ; and, knowing nothing of the loss of their 
seed organ, they are contented and happy all through a life, generally to 
them free from irritability and care. I suggest that a law be passed in 
every negro state of the Union, requiring that all male anti-racials two years 
old and under, shall be made eunuchs. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DLXXXIX. 
Legality. — This cannot hurt the feelings of the parents, and will not 
be objected to by the infants. That it is legal I am advised by several 
excellent constitutional lawyers. It cannot oppose the Constitution of the 
United States, as it is a state law. To meet the sensualism of negroes, nearly 
all Southern Legislatures make rape punishable by death. This does not 
conflict with the Constitution, on the ground that each state may legislate 
for its own individual government. The castration of negro infants is an act 
of humanity and of the highest civilization. Mo7'e than that it must be done. 
In the country where these anti-racials dwell the human heart is a solid rock 
of hatred ; and no person is justified in repelling a remedy that is the least 
objectionable of all thus far suggested. I advise no one to depend for facts 
upon newspaper reports ; either visit the South, as I have done, or else write 
to reliable clergymen who live there. - 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXC. 

Indifference People sit idly by and are unwilling to make the effort 

necessary to eradicate a growing evil. They believe in the doctrine that 
death will remove them from these scenes and leave the problem for others 
to solve. This is dishonest. Whoever shirks a responsibility is downright 
wicked. It is easier to permit intemperance, gambling, newspaper-sensa- 
tionalism, indecent houses and prevalent crime in politics than to fight them ; 
but the man or woman who tolerates these or any of them, even by inactiv- 



LIFE. 307 

ity, runs the risk of losing the life to come. We are in the world to fight the 
devil, and no one has a right to shirk the duty God has imposed. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXCI. 
Colleges. — A certain fixed compulsory standard is necessary for ordi- 
nary success in life. An ignorant man is an incubus on society. But, 
beyond the limits of the standard of compulsion, a voluntary or elective 
college course may be wise. The question presents itself. What is the best 
method of university training? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules f(jr Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXCir. 
Judicial Minds. — The more a man learns, the more sides of life he 
sees, and the more he compares. The habit of comparison leads to the 
judicial mind ; this develops reasoning ; the wrong ideas are made clear ; 
and such a man rarely becomes a criminal. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXCIII. 
Observation. — In the normal child, knowledge is acquired first by 
observation — through the senses ; this acquisition leads to the development 
of that complex series, the power of retaining, that of recalling and that of 
recognizing impressions, which altogether make up what is known popularly 
as memory. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXCIV. 

Relations. — But in the process of mere acquiring, the observed things 
are compared and in that of recognition, things or impressions are recog- 
nized largely by their relations ; this involves, the examination of things 
apart from other things, of their differences as well as of their relations, the 
formation of intellectual images and the separation of essentials from non- 
essentials ; whence the wonderful and perplexing queries with which a child 
assails those who can be reached ; all of this leads to the formation of con- 
clusions, of inductions, of general principles ; thence to application of prin- 
ciples to matters not so familiar — to the formation of deductions and to the 
encouragement of a lively imagination. This briefly is the succession, 
whether the child be of savage or of civilized parentage. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



308 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPBY—TOME SEVEN. 

LESSON DXCY. 

Education and Crime. — Left to itself, the mind, seeing things 
wrongly, makes no effort to see them rightly ; fails to apprehend their rela- 
tions, and makes inductions which are absurd and are liable to become 
dangerous as guiding principles of conduct. We may laugh, or in better 
temper we may smile sadly as we read of Kaffirs who worshiped an anchor as 
a powerful fetich, because the man who had knocked a chip from one of the 
flukes, died suddenly ; or we may be amused by the folly of a savage, who 
recognizes a demon in the gentle breeze, which, blowing on his neck, gives 
him a cold ; but these can give a reason for their belief and conduct 
equally good with that which most of us can give for many beliefs influ- 
encing our action. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXCVI. 

University Education As all know who are at all familiar with 

the problems attending the management of universities, there are two very 
decided opinions as to what should constitute the higher and broader educa- 
tion of young men and women ; but more especially those who are to bear 
the brunt of the battle of life. These leading opinions represent, first, the 
old school, or abstract education ; and second, the new school, or useful 
education, known as utilitarianism. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXCVIL 
Abstract Knowledge. — In presenting these two views I can do noth- 
ing better than to repeat the exact words of John J. Stevenson, Ph.D., 
LL.D., of the University of the City of New York: "^'The old school 
finds the best means in the study of abstractions ; it holds that the study of 
languages, especially of the classical tongues, affords the best basal training; 
it would place the child in earlier youth at this study to sharpen the intel- 
lect by dwelling on niceties of expression and on the recognition of delicate 
distinctions, so producing exactness of thought and precision of statement 
while strengthening the verbal memory ; with this study, though subordi- 
nate, is to be associated that of mathematics, with excursions in other direc- 
tions ; but emphasis is laid on the classical work because of its humanizing 
effect; the lad is preparing to read ancient authors in the original, to become 



LIFE. 309 

acquainted with the philosophy, and to partake of the refinement found only 
in writers of antiquity, when the influence of the shop and the love of 
money were not reflected throughout literature." 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX DXCVIII. 
Concrete Knowledge. — The new school asserts ''that Greek and Latin 
are taught as mere abstractions, that instead of Greek and Latin, there is 
taught a universal grammar, for which German or English could be used, for 
which Goethe or Shakespeare would answer as well as Sophocles or Horace. 
They assert too, that this method of training is unjust to man ; that thereby 
it is possible for men to enter the Christian ministry or to be admitted to 
the bar, even though ignorant of the simplest process of nature and of the 
most common-place facts in agriculture and mechanic arts : that men who 
pass through college courses and enter upon business pursuits, show unfit- 
ness for concrete things, and lose valuable time in learning to utilize 
their mental training. They maintain that a study of God's works of 
creation is a vastly better occupation for the present and for the future, 
than is the study of human intellect, which, by some accounts, has fallen 
sadly from its first estate, and by others has risen none too far above it." 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DXCIX. 

True Knowledge. — As in very many other cases, the truth lies 
between these extremes, but it lies nearer to the modern school than to the 
other — a truth which has gained recognition rapidly during the last score of 
years, as appears from alterations in the college curriculum. The times 
have changed and our methods must change with them. Two centuries ago, 
Latin was the common language of learned men and its place in the curric- 
ulum was as important as that of French and German should be now — and 
for the same reason. But that reason no longer avails for the retention of 
Latin in its exceedingly prominent place. Greek is necessary still for the 
theologian just as is Hebrew, which is begun usually in the seminary, though 
a wise regard for the needs of theological students has led some colleges to 
place it among the electives. The great value of Greek and Latin as now 
taught lies in the polish imparted ; the teaching does little toward expanding 
the intellect, it tends rather to make the mind great in little things ; its place 



310 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

is not at the beginning but at the close of training. The intellect must first 
be shaped, then polished ; the great effort prior to the college course must be 
to develop ; true training will endeavor to assist, not to thwart nature. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DC. 

Readiness. — In the steady times of peace the routine steps to great 
places in life are not favorable to persons of genius. While no man nor 
woman need fail to obtain a good living and a happy home, the greater gains 
are the results of accident or notoriety. It is in periods of upheavals that 
the strongest come to the front. War, revolution, national throes, or social 
disorders will present opportunities to those who are ready to accept them. 
But if one is content to achieve a better end — happiness — it must be founded 
on a basis of philosophic principle. This involves readiness for life's 
demands. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCI. 
Success. — A person is successful in secular life who makes sure that 
he will have a home, be well fed and clothed, and be happy as long as he 
lives. As will be seen in the Ideal City, every toiler who is educated, tem- 
perate, honest and industrious, should be guaranteed a home and pension. 
The reasons are plainly stated, and are founded on natural principles. This 
is material success. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCII. 
Vital Success. — Beyond the material is the vital. The former urges 
us to care for the body and earthly happiness, and this is right. Any relig- 
ion that preaches poverty or the neglect of the good things of life, is wrong 
in its first principle. Money, goods and chattels, so far as they lead to com- 
fort, are worthily sought. But when life is done, something follows : 
either the loss of the soul or its safety. Life is a failure that is not built 
upon a foundation other than material prosperity. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCIII. 

Riches. — Pleasant and grand as it seems to acquire wealth, it is never- 
theless a source of constant misery to those who possess it. I am not one of 



LIFE. 311 

those who, being poor, assail the rich. On the other hand, I have all and 
more than I need of this world's goods. I see what plenty and poverty- 
each may bring ; and I know from a thousand observations that happiness 
lies midway between the extremes. The pursuit of wealth is the doom of 
the life to come and much of the life on earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCIV. 

Integrity. — To earn a slight advantage it is almost always true that a 
young man will lay aside all considerations of honor and honesty. Take 
the thousands of reporters on the sensational, or daily press. They know that 
they are expected to falsify, and that promotion is a premium on dishonesty; 
and few resist the temptation. In all kinds of trade "business is business;" 
which means "cheat all you can but do not get in jail." The slight profit 
made from food-adulterations tempts men to poison the blood of their fellow- 
beings for a few pennies. So brokers gamble in bread-stuffs reckless of 
principle. The great Michigan fires of this summer destroyed nearly two 
hundred human lives and forty million dollars worth of the best timber in 
America ; all because a few men wished to conceal their stealings of lumber. 
This avarice, minus honesty, is exactly of the same stripe as the morality of 
reporters, adulterers and gamblers. It is present in the hearts of nearly all 
men, and is the hybrid offspring of wealth and city life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCV. 
Character — There is that real thing beneath the cover of external 
appearance, called character. It is the measure of morality. If the possessor 
is honest and sturdy in natural forces the character is strong, the stature 
grand. If he is honest and simple, or without resoluteness, the character is 
weak. If he is dishonest, it is bad. He knows what he is ; all the decep- 
tion which he shows to the world cannot change his own opinion of himself. 

For Essays on this subject, see '' Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCVI. 

Reputation. — Many bad persons have good reputations. Many good 

persons have bad reputations. The world is the judge. It consists of all 

kinds of characters ; and their agreement is the reputation of the judge, A 

good report makes no impression upon this jury. What is said that injures 



312 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 



is all that they know, hear, or care to listen to. For instance, a paper pub- 
lishes a lie ; on the day it is read, it is accepted ; the next day it is proved 
false; the proof is uninteresting. Out of ten thousand scandals carefully 
followed, the truth was either suppressed, or was inserted in small type in an 
out of the way place in the paper. Good reputation, once assailed, whether 
justly or not, has no hope before the jury called the world. No clearer 
proof of the prevalent presence of the devil in the hearts of men, could be 
found. In reality, before such a jury, reputation means nothing. A man's 
knowledge of himself is his true reputation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCVII. 

Selfishness. — Self is the first thought of all mean people. Why not 

take an interest in some other person who is worthy of your care ? Many 

such exist. Go to the plain people, the great middle classes, and find some 

honest face to study, some life to make glad. Exclusiveness is not Heavenly. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Eules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCVIII. 
Sorrow. — If you are poor you have made, not mistakes but blunders, 
in the past. The Evil One has drawn you into a wrong mode of living. 
If- you have lost health, it is the fault of yourself or some one responsible 
for your care. Sickness is unnatural. If death has robbed you of a dear 
one, ask yourself these questions: first, will that soul live after death? — sec- 
ond, will my soul survive this life? — third, will we meet beyond? Only 
the universal "yes" will bring comfort. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCIX. 
Responsibility. — Around you in this life are faces who do not count 
the consequences of reckless living. They say to themselves : " God made 
us ; whatever we are He is responsible ; He could not have made us to be 
destroyed ; if we are born with sin it is not our fault ; if we live according 
to our natures there can be no punishment for what we cannot help, or can- 
not choose to help." Thus nearly all people sin and care not for the con- 
sequences. Their assumptions are erroneous. God did not make them. 
They are the result of a conflict between the forces of God and Satan, with 
the latter ascendant in all ages since the world began. Souls do not all live 



LIFE. 313 

after death. Those who pass the metamorphosis became eternal spirits. 
That others fail and perish I will prove to be true beyond all doubt. 

For Essays on this svibject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCX. 
Clearance — Every human being must fight for a clearance from the 
entanglements of evil in this life. Like the slimy bodies of venomous 
reptiles coiled about the heart of some fair existence, the influences born of 
our ancestral enemies are entwined around every good purpose in life. 
Passive indifference to the necessity of a constant warfare means the loss of 
all hope hereafter. I speak as one who might deal with mathematics. A 
certainty of result is no more an ethical than an arithmetical prospect. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXI. 
Superstition. — The fear of the unknown has lead to many attempts to 
construe occurrences into omens of good or bad. How much real truth is 
there in superstition? Its origin is due to ignorance. If all the facts of 
life and death were laid open to the knowledge of the mind; every super- 
stition would vanish at once. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXII. 
Friday. — Few persons are willing to commence an important under- 
taking on Friday. Sailing vessels do not start out on that day, and the 
large passenger steamships, if you will observe their lists, are not booked to 
leave on that day. The captains tell me that sailors are superstitious, and 
if they were required to sail on Friday, would be less valuable and trust- 
worthy in a storm ; and this fact keeps patrons from placing their lives in 
charge of a superstitious crew, especially when choice of other days may be 
easily had. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXIII. 
Events — Many very sensible persons are able to trace unfortunate 
events in their own lives to Friday, and as the day and misfortune coincided, 
the inference is drawn that the former caused the latter. The most faulty 
arguments in the world are those which are proved by instances. Let any 
person assert a belief or theory, and somebody may easily sustain or defeat 



314 SOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

it by citing certain instances; the person who has the best memory will win. 
JSTow if I were to attempt to prove that Friday is sometimes unlucky I 
would cite a few well-known facts bearing upon that view. Moscow was 
burned on that day; Lee was defeated and he surrendered on Friday; 
Richmond was evacuated on Friday; King Charles I. was beheaded on 
Friday ; Julius Csesar was assassinated on Friday ; Joan of Arc was burned 
to death on Friday; the battles of Marengo and Waterloo were fought on 
Friday. It is true that the value of these events as omens will depend 
upon the person who construes them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXIV. 
Omens — If I were to assert that the great events proved that Friday 
was a lucky day, I would quote other facts equally well known. Washington 
was born on Friday; Shakespeare was born on Friday; Columbus set sail on 
Friday; and discovered America on Friday; the Bastile was destroyed on 
Friday; The Mayflower landed on Friday; Queen Victoria was married on 
Friday ; Napoleon was born on Friday ; the Battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought on Friday ; likewise the Battle of New Orleans; the Declaration of 
Independence was signed on Friday. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXV. 

The Crucifixion The fact that Christ was crucified on Friday is 

the origin of the superstitious dread of the day. He represented what 
was divine in the universe ; He was undoubtedly hated by Satan ; and His 
death was the work of the agents of evil. That this hatred culminated on 
Friday may or may not have been accidental; that the day was the triumphal 
period of those who despised good is the only fact known. If you will 
watch your impulses during the week you will find in a large majority of 
cases that your efforts seek to culminate on Friday. This is true in all 
lives. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXVL 
Rule — I find the impulse to execute plans on Friday to be unusually 
strong. While even a prevailing similarity of results may not prove an 
assertion, the following rule has been sustained by a sufficient number of 



LIFE. 315 

facts to make it worthy of attention : When any evil is commenced on 
Friday, it involves disaster to all concerned in its inception ; but when good 
is commenced, the enterprise is fruitful of ample bounty. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXVII. 

Thirteen. — A man, a college president and personal friend of mine, 
told me that he sat at a Christmas dinner in India, when the total number 
present were thirteen. He observed it; and, while concealing the fact from 
the others, he avoided activity in the meal. Before the next Christmas 
returned every person of the twelve was dead ; many being victims of the 
cholera. Christ and his disciples numbered thirteen ; Iscariot being sup- 
posed to be the thirteenth. While an occasional event seems to point to 
the number as unlucky, I have collected, through others, as many incidents 
as I can ; and there seems to be no real reason for believing it to forebode 
ill. Christ knew the nature of the men He was selecting ; and, in a time 
when nearly all were evil-hearted, He found a remarkable body of good 
men; the proportion of one in twelve being a very small percentage of bad. 
Iscariot filled a mission expected of him. In our day we find the number 
thirteen an emblem of many great and good things; it is the baker's dozen; 
the alternate number in the eighths of a hundred ; there are thirteen weeks 
in summer, autumn, winter and spring ; there were thirteen States in the 
Union at the time of our Independence; thirteen stars in the flag; and 
there are and always have been thirteen stripes. To any one who will 
study events it will clearly appear that the superstition concerning this 
number is ill-founded ; while Friday is conflict day between good and evil. 

For Essays on this suVjjeet, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXVIII. 
Acumen. — Let us remember that if all our deeds are good, every day 
in the week is full of luck ; and there are no ill omens which honest pur- 
pose need fear. But aside from that, many lives are hampered and much 
usefulness destroyed, by the fear of superstition. Be strong enough to rise 
above this nonsense. The notions, impressions, whims, fads and omens of a 
day do much to narrow your existence. I declare, with absolute certainty 
of knowledge, that there is no truth in the superstitions that haunt hu- 
manity. A philosopher should have mental acumen ; let every man and 



316 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE SEVEN. 

woman cast these vague omens out of mind forever. Then a more reason- 
able success will follow all efforts to rise in the world. Where stupidity 
has feared to venture, acumen has gone nobly on and achieved many well- 
earned triumphs. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXIX. 
War. — All existence, as far as we can know, is war. There is no 
peace. There can be none. If one is poor, the war against starvation or 
suffering is most constant and oftentimes piteous. If one is rich, the war 
against the approach of thieves is equally acrimonious. Selfishness reaches 
out on all hands to seize the acquisitions of others. What is a dispute be- 
tween individuals becomes a battle between nations. All over this round 
earth the possessions of governments are guarded by hostile soldiery. There 
is no peace. So in the lives of human beings, the day of rest never comes 
until death closes the lids. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Teu. *■ 

LESSON DCXX. 

Activity. — The mind and all the organs of the body are soundest 
in health when life is active. Moral and physical safety depend on the 
unremitting watchfulness against enemies, and warfare upon them. Do not 
be afraid to fight. Let your wounds be in front. Your body is in a state 
of war, as well as all the forces of earth and sky. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXI. 
Greatness. — If you would live in this world you must fight the 
DEVS that infest your body. If you would live in the world to come, 
you must fight the devils that are in and about your moral life, and in the 
society of which you form a part. You know how eagerly they invite you 
to willingness ; how hotly they overwhelm you if you yield ; how savagely 
they thrust at you if you defy them. Peace comes only with death. Great- 
ness is founded on warfare. The crown of success is the victory of life 
over evil ; and every hard fought moral battle may place a jewel in its con- 
stellation. There is no other greatness. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 317 

LESSON DCXXir. 

Infancy. — The child is helpless. What he may become is the respons- 
ible charge of others, — a duty that no one can shirk. The influences we 
throw about children for good or bad are placed to our debt or credit before 
the coffin lid shuts out our face from the gaze of parting friends. The only 
safe way is to exert a positive influence of good over all young people ; do 
not let them drift ; turn their faces to the right ; be not content to care for 
your own, but organize a society intended to teach all parents the necessity 
of shaping the moral natures of all children from earliest infancy. It is a 
solemn duty. Let no one shirk it. 

For Essays on this suliject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXIII. 
Youth. — In this, the summer season of life, the doctrines of growth, 
health and direction are most easily impressed and absorbed ; and, if the 
child has been cared for, the man and woman will be safe. As a sound 
body is the best gift of Nature, every boy and girl should know what 
health really is, how it is acquired, and how lost ; for, when the bones and 
tissues are hardened with age, it is difficult to court the forces of mother 
earth and woo them to our lives. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXIV. 
Maturity. — At that precise period in every career when the respon- 
sibility of body, mind and moral growth is charged directly to the one being 
who possesses them, the fateful war is fully on. The weak may fall by 
the wayside and be lost forever ; the strong must conquer now or never. 
All who are in mature life should consider carefully the provisions of Tome 
Nine, and act upon them at once. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten, 

LESSON DCXXY. 
Age. — When your body came into the world it was a conflict of vital 
forces, one seeking to maintain its energy, the other preying upon it. In 
youth the glame is far more energetic than in age ; consequently the body 
grows till its fullness of shape is capable of absorbing the energy of this 
glame ; then it holds its own. In this body are organs, bones, veins and 
tissue. The food we eat contains something intended to become bone 



318 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

deposit. Until growth ceased and the bones were hardened by this deposit, 
it was all absorbed ; but after that it travels in the blood, finding lodgment 
wherever it can. Thus we begin to grow old when growth ceases. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at tlie end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXVI. ' 

Cause of Age Scientists call this deposit calcareous matter. Imagine 

a vein through whose walls the rich blood flows freely ; we say it is the vigor 
of youth. But the blood, every year, leaves a very small quantity of cal- 
careous matter in the vein itself. For many years it is not noticed, like a 
pipe whose inner surface becomes gradually coated with lime. Through 
the heart these veins run to supply the valvular action ; upon their clearness 
of surface depends the organic and tissue supply of the whole body, for the 
heart pumps the blood to all parts. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXYII. 
The Heart. — Calcareous matter first affects the heart. The little 
tubes or veins become gradually clogged, requiring ten, twenty, or perhaps 
fifty years to interfere with its regular action. Li its effort to distribute the 
blood the heart overworks part of its veins, or its valves. Valvular defects 
are very common. Degeneration of the tissues is still more prevalent; and 
irregular action may be easily detected in many cases. When the heart 
cannot supply the demands of the body, some part suffers ; a break down 
follows ; and disease is settled there. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXVIII. 
General Breaking Up. — The brain, organs, tissues, and veins are 
gradually filled with calcareous deposits. After about forty years, the 
flexibility of the brain is lost, the tissues stiffen, and the mind becomes 
obstinate. New ideas are not easily absorbed. Only the old rules of 
conduct remain, and the thoughts are fixtures. Every improvement must 
be supported by a well-known fact. It is said by able physicians that the 
aging of the mind and body after a person is forty years old, may be deter- 
mined by the obstinacy of the brain, and its inability to accept progressive 
ideas. This condition does not come on, in some cases, until the age of 
sixty or more. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 319 

LESSON DCXXIX. 

Weakness. — If the propulsion of the blood through the body is 
attended by less energy, it must follow that all the functions are weakened ; 
and this is made general by the clogging of the system with calcareous 
deposits. It is not so much a gradual weakening, as it is a succession of 
colds or disturbances which are sure to leave the body in greater decrepi- 
tude, like a series of steps toward the grave. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXX. 
The Warning. — We wonder when we are to die. It may be sud- 
denly, and without notice; or through a steady decline. In ninety-nine 
cases out of a hundred the warning comes clearly in some form or another. 
The energy of life is so far diminished by disease that rest is welcome. 
Those who, in health, dread the fateful hour, are made willing by the 
softening hand of disease. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXI. 

The Allurement — There is a quietude in the jaws of death that 
blinds us to its terrors. Those who suffer agonies are few in number. 
Even in moments of torture, the nerves are deadened. A slight cut hurts 
more than the plunge of a knife. Men whose legs are crushed feel nothing, 
while the sprain of an ankle is excruciating suffering. To burn at the stake 
seems the extreme of anguish, but the moments of agony are few ; one 
breath of smoke often producing unconsciousness. The man who looks into 
the eyes of the savage beast about to crunch him to jelly, feels the pleasur- 
able sensation of allurement to death. The mouse suffers nothing in the 
claws of the cat, and the bird goes willingly to its fate. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXII. 

Pain — Nothing can be more intense — and at the same time superficial 
— than pain. It is electrical life in the network of nerves which dwell in the 
body. A slight agitation draws the current faster, and we suffer ; a severe 
overflow of the current exhausts it. The easier is harder to bear than the 
greater. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



320 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 



LESSON DCXXXIII. 

Unconsciousness The mind may become unconscious in health ; 

the body never. The latter suffers paralysis, from which it rarely recovers. 
The mind, when conscious, is a battery charged with electricity held in poise. 
A blow may disturb the balance, and the entity is lost. The vital supply 
may be deficient, and sleep follows. During this period the medulla 
attends to its duties, and the physical functions are promptly performed. 
The being is none the less perfect because the mind ceases its activity. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXINT. 

Thought. — The blood flows through the brain day and night, in wak- 
ing and sleeping; although in the latter state, its flow is less. During 
thought an acidulous fluid washes the brain, as saliva does the mouth during 
mastication. This comes from the blood ; but when the mind sleeps the 
wash is discontinued, just as saliva is absent from the mouth when the latter 
is quiet. A thought draws this fluid from the inflowing blood, and a small 
tidal wave sweeps over whatever part of the brain is active. The wash is 
electrical and phosphatic. It is clearly demonstrated that it draws phos- 
phorous from the blood. This process is discontinued when the mind rests. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXV. 
Sleep. — At will we may keep the brain awake for a certain time. At 
length exhaustion wraps it in slumber. If the wash ceases to flow as rapidly 
as it should we become stupid. If it stops we sleep. As it diminishes we 
feel drowsy. When it recommences we wake. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXVL 
Dreams. — No person on the way to sleep ever dreams. There is, 
between the graded diminution of the wash over the brain and its cessation, 
a steady falling into slumber that admits of no dreaming. While asleep we 
never dream. It is only when the wash is excited to flow over the convolu- 
tions of the brain, that the phenomenon occurs. Dreaming is an inability 
to awake while the flow is coming on. It is abnormal, for there should be 
a steady process of emerging out of slumber as the flow spreads over the 
brain. Sometimes it is caused by the previous day's excitement, sometimes 



LIFE. 321 

by partial unconsciousness, or imperfect sleep, followed by a tendency to 
awake ; sometimes by pressure of tlie blood upon a certain brain- convolu- 
tion, causing a dream of something that is foreign to our experience ; in 
all of which cases it is precipitated by some acidulous flow drawn from the 
blood. We immediately awake fully or partly. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXVII. 

Somnambulism. — We have seen that the medulla controls the func- 
tions of the body during sleep and unconsciousness. In such a state the 
cerebrum or thinking brain, and the cerebellum or muscular brain, should 
sleep. The two work together, but may work apart. Thus, if the cerebrum 
sleeps, and the cerebellum awakes, the muscles may perform some work ; 
the man may arise with his cerebrum asleep, while his cerebellum will 
operate the muscles of the feet, legs, arms, or general body. He may walk 
out of a window, climb roofs at night, and take his way amid dangers, some- 
times in perfect safety. This condition is abnormal, and may be trained out 
of a person, by forming the habit of doing nothing thoughtlessly. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXVIII. 

Cause of Sleep. — How much accident and how much design influenced 
the inclination of the earth's axis, is a fruitful inquiry. We find that the 
revolution of the globe produces night and day. Had either pole been 
turned toward the sun, external heat might have fallen upon one continent; 
while, midway off, vernal spring had dwelt evermore ; toward the equator, 
the twilight of early winter would have marked the zone beyond which only 
night and perpetual frost could be found. The earth would then have been 
the home of people who never slept. As it is, the recurrence of night and 
day compels alternate periods of work and rest, of waking and sleeping. 
The latter are physical habits, first induced by night, and now confirmed as 
fixed nature. There is no doubt that the rest we have, superinduces greater 
mental value during wakefulness. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXXXIX. 
Deductions. — I talk with certain learned men, some of whom are phy- 
sicians, who tell me that there is no soul, no life after death, no existence sepa- 
21 



322 H03IE C0UE8E IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 



rable from the body. This belief is shared by many able men. To me it is 
perfectly clear, and I am certain of it beyond all doubt, that there is no 
soul until after death. When the mind sleeps, the deathless soul is not 
present ; when a blow renders the brain unconscious, no soul asserts itself ; 
when sickness or mania clouds the mind, there is no soul. So when the 
worm sleeps no butterfly appears ; and none can until the worm is gone. 
Then comes the metamorphosis. The crawling caterpillar, the chrysalis- 
tomb, the beautiful winged butterfly, are types of mortal and eternal life, 
fair in all hope of blessed immortality. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXL. 

Contemplation In this world we are the conflict. In pain we are 

born. Sorrow treads the roadway by our side ; its gaunt finger pointing to 
the tombs of shattered loves and yearnings. We are filled with wonder at 
the vast realms of the unknown which close us in on either hand. Mystery 
is written on every flower, in every star, at every smile or tear that bathes 
the face. Nothing is understood. So when death enters at the door, and 
lifts his bony hand to us we take it helplessly, and follow the grim messenger 
to the waiting grave. Ofttimes, in the sadness of some twilight hour, sitting 
in melancholy contemplation, we study ourselves apart ; analyzing our char- 
acter by the light of our own conscience ; and wondering how a thing of 
such imperfect mould can dare to venture where the shadows hide the land- 
scape. Still on we go, day by day moving toward our final resting place. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXLL 
The Last Day. — The warning came and we believed it not. But the 
herald tells us of the day, and we are waiting at the bed. Around are 
tearful eyes as tender of their love as when the light first broke across our 
face. The parting words are feebly said. First comes the little child, 
whose tiny fingers toy in bony hands; then the grown daughter, with counte- 
nance that is forced above the tears to look through them to meet the filmy 
gaze ; the wife sits at the bedside, bowed in grief that finds no words ; and 
the aged mother brings her furrowed face to where she can see the lines of 
death playing fast around the mouth and brow. The clock ticks the seconds. 



LIFE. 323 

the diamond dust of time that crowds the ages on, and all are waiting for 
the kingly tread of death. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXLII. 

The Last Hour — The knock is heard. Hushed is the room. All 
eyes are fixed upon one pallid face. The dying man is conscious of it all. 
He knows the very heart-beat of each friend who lingers at his bed. He 
cannot see, but he perceives. An acute mind in the instant seizes upon his 
senses, and he reads the thoughts of all as clearly as though they were 
stamped in bold relief against the wall beneath a blazing sun. That spirit 
of life which emanates from the medulla is about to leave the body in which 
it has dwelt these many years. Unconsciousness and sleep no longer invite 
the medulla to its steady work, for now it must stop and all will then be 
over. The weakening pulse tells us that the heart is failing, the breath 
scarce comes at all, and the last throbs drop from the dying frame like the 
motions of a loom that gently comes to rest. We place our hand against the 
heart; one — two — three; "I am dying," breathes the conscious man; four 
— five ; the beating almost stops; six ; "he is no more;" we wait for another 
stroke of that tireless engine, but it will never beat again. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXLIII. 

After Death. — The hands are folded on the breast, the eyes are made 
to close, the jaw is bandaged, and the cooling form is straightened for the 
coffin. One by one the tender friends kiss the still warm lips, and some 
clasp the hand that had supported them in life ; soon all depart — all, save 
one. The shades are drawn, and quiet gloom haunts the place that often 
had been full of joy in other years. A woman rises from the bed, goes to the 
window, looks out at the sky as though the departed soul had winged its 
flight to other realms ; then sadly drawing the shade again, she takes her 
place near the clay that held her universe of love. No tears flow now ; the 
anguish of her soul is far too deep ; she throws herself upon the dead, her 
lips touch his, as they utter but one word, " husband." 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



324 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME SEVEN. 

LESSON DCXLIV. 

The Funeral. — Malice is now silent on the lips of the human devils 
who magnified the bad and scorned to believe that good was possible. 
Flowers fill the room with their better spirit. The limbs are rigid, and the 
hand chills the touch. Prayers and blessings, song and sorrow, make the 
solemn quartet of respectful ceremony. None look upon the dead as one 
that lived. He is remembered, and this looks like him, but it is not the 
mortal who moved about through the house and out into the wide world. 
Something has happened to the body since it lay in death. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXLV. 
The Grave. — It is clay now, cold and unsuggestive of life. At the 
burial ground they lower it to its narrow cavern, the rites are said, and the 
earth falls in clods over the silent house. The mound that rises above the 
dead will sink towards the clay it covers, when the autumn rains have 
soaked the loam. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXLVI. 
After the Grave. — The cutting of the soil with spade and shovel 
disturbed the workers whose home is in the sightless ground. With the 
quietude of many days and weeks they are emboldened to inquire what 
dwells within ; but time may not admit them yet. A tinier life, so small 
it cannot be discerned, makes ingress to the silent sleeper, and brings its 
many millioned brood. The feast is almost endless, so it seems to the hun- 
dreds and thousands of generations who come and go in continuous succession. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXLYII. 
Time — Kains and sunshine have beat upon the grave, year after year. 
The coffin has fallen apart. Worms are everywhere tenants of the sepulchre. 
The skeleton is bared of all that clothed it ; for the f casters, tugging away 
at the tissues of flesh, released every fiber, and disintegrated the wonderful 
workmanship of a supreme creation. The child that came in perfect form 
to bless a long time happy home, and grew to noble stature, admirable in 
every part, has succumbed to the rotting ground. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



LIFE. 325 

LESSON DCXLVIII. 

The End Some generations after, a rough laborer, tearing up the 

ground to make way for the march of progress, came upon a handful of 
bones. He gave no thought to what they were, and idly tossed them by. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXLIX. 
Philosophy of Death. — -What is he who died, and where is he now? 
At the moment that he closed his eyes, did permanent unconsciousness seize 
him, and end all thought and knowledge ? Did he, as he lay on the bed, 
know that a life-long friend mourned his loss? What knew he of the 
crushed heart that fluttered over his silent form? Did he leave all, and go 
beyond the limits of earth to the Home of homes, or was he in the home 
that sorrowed for his loss ? How easily millions die ! What awaits them 
at the portal of the grave? Immortality or Annihilation? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



TOME EIGHT. 



THE IDEAL CITY, 



LESSON DCL. 
Plan — I shall divide this Tome into lessons, and state the propositions 
of an ideal mode of living and the nature of a model community under a 
model government, in a series of principles which must be recognized where- 
ever happiness is sought. To all these principles the attention of each 
student is called, in the hope that some philosophical essay may be the 
product of each lesson. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLI. 
Practicability. — The question of practicability is a serious one when 
laws are considered ; yet whenever a living principle — a thing of right — is 
found to underlie the proposed law, the waiting to discuss whether it is 
policy to make it, is always a compromise with crime, a yielding to the sug- 
gestion of the Evil One. Whatever is right should go through to the end 
destined by God and Nature. The propositions of The Ideal City are based 
on the eternal principles of life and government, any variance from which 
must involve unhappiness in the home and disaster to the community. 
These principles are not now enforced, but should be. They will not be 
enforced next year ; nor until a band of dauntless men and women are found 
who will give themselves to the task of laying the foundation of a com- 
munity, by establishing an heroic government after the manner herein des- 
cribed. 

For Essays on this subject see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLII. 
The Founders. — Every person willing to offer allegiance to the Prin- 
ciples of Right, stated in Tome Nine, may become a founder or an inhabit- 
ant of an Ideal City. No others are accepted, unless of immature age. 
The possibility of such a city depends upon a general spreading of the 
Principles of Right, and their acceptance by a large number of people. It 

f326) 



THE IDEAL CITY. 327 



will then be an easy matter for a sufficient number of persons to so arrange 
their circumstances as to organize a community. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLIII. 
The Principles — As the Ideal City is supposed to aim at the acquisi- 
tion of happiness through the adoption of principles, and, as it is not 
possible for people at once to found a community under these rules of right, 
I request that all students conform their present mode of living as much as 
possible to these principles ; not asking any to make a personal sacrifice, 
except of habits that are positively sinful. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLIV. 
Land — A city, as is generally understood, is a collection of houses 
closely situated for the convenience of those who wish to be in a limited 
general compass either for business or sociability. It means the exclusion 
of land, air and sky ; and, in large settlements, an unhealthy shade. As 
such I do not intend it. Life without land is narrow and selfish. Our 
ancestors roamed at will over mountain and field, acquired glame from air 
and sunshine, appetite from the health of Nature, and conscience from com- 
munion with the flower-life that ])aid homage to God. I do not believe the 
man or woman really exists who lives in a crowded city. One of the requi- 
sites of the Ideal City is land. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLV. 
The Estate. — The land owned or controlled by the citizen shall not be 
less than one fourth of an acre, or about eleven thousand square feet. This 
is called an estate. It is a large piece, some will say. What is called an 
ordinary town lot is half as large; and two lots are not more than the aver- 
age well-to-do housekeeper generally seeks. As there may be philosophy 
in one's mode of living, on the one hand, or a dull lack of comprehension of 
the fairness of life on the other ; so a home may be built to bless or to curse 
the builder and his family. I prefer to choose the philosophy of blessing. 
For this reason every estate in the Ideal City should be not less than one- 
fourth of an acre, and not more than two acres. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten . 



328 S03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE EIGHT. 

LESSON DCLYI. 
Crowded Life — In a city as commonly built, partition walls separate 
one house from another on the sides ; a damp and shady back yard presents 
a gloomy rear ; while the front is a sea of pavement, holding up the filth of 
passing animals, and holding down a poisonous soil, one odorous smell from 
which shocks the coarsest nostrils. Beneath the cellar is the same sepul- 
chered soil. Trees and grass are a rarity ; and, when found, are loaded 
with the dust and bacteria of the general city. Even the water and drain- 
age, when good, are not safe. The gas that forms in the sewers of large 
cities, always escapes into the soil, and never fails to find its way into the 
house. It is a virulent poison, loaded with bacteria, which get into the 
lungs, on the food and in the drinking water. The body of every man, 
woman and child who dwells over sewer-saturated soil is in a constant war- 
fare between life and death. You say the soil is not saturated with sewer-gas. 
To prove that it is, stand near an opening dug in the street or under the 
house ; the gas is so rank that you cannot breathe it. No sewer pipes can 
be made tight enough to exclude it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLVII. 
Philosophy of Living. — In towns where the houses are not crowded, 
and the drainage is not overworked, the sewer gas rarely ever saturates the 
soil. It is carried off in the moderate use of the drains. But the greater 
advantage is in waving trees and moving grass ; they purify the air just as 
a flowing stream purifies the water it carries. Human exhalations are 
death to man and life to trees and vegetation. Each kingdom supplies 
vitality to the other , and absorbs that which the other exhales. Man is 
necessary to plant-life, and cannot live without the latter. Nine-tenths of 
philosophy relates to living ; and Nature must be the boon companion of 
man. City life is grave life to the thousand blessings that bubble up in the 
human heart. That person is morbidly constituted who prefers the city to 
the open land. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLYIII. 
Labor. — I believe in work; not hard, slavish drudgery, that strains 
the muscles and deforms the body ; but a graded scale of activity suited to 



THE IDEAL CITY. 329 



one's avocation, and ranging from labor to exercise merely. If, in the social 
plan, one is destined to toil for a living, the work should not be arduous nor 
overtaxing to the body. The flesh has rights which, while they have not 
always been respected, must be understood before society can be said to rest 
on a proper basis. This terrible inequality of the several parts of the 
social fabric will yearly present a graver problem to thoughtful men and 
women; for, as men are educated, they see; and gross injustice can live only 
by the tolerance of the ignorant. Looking at principles as our guide, we 
find that Nature decrees activity for all; idleness for none; a limited amount 
of work for those whose avocations do not involve labor ; and a relief to 
all men and women who are held under the strain of severe toil. Intelli- 
gence, in a word, insists that the whole plan of toil shall be revised ; and to 
do this the Ideal C^ity exacts certain demands. It is not necessary to wait 
for the building of our city before attempting the reforms of life. Let each 
do his share now as far as circumstances permit. To lay aside the doing of 
a good deed until opportunity smiles upon the time, is burying the limited 
treasure in the enemy's ground. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLIX. 

The Day. — From the age of twenty to sixty the day should be divided 
into thirds. Eight hours' sleep are most conducive to health; less than this 
saps the nervous forces ; more than eight hours' sleep locks up the vitality 
and produces stupidity; except in youth and age. From twenty to sixty 
every person finds forty years of ideal life possible ; and much more time 
after that if he lives wisely. There should be a period of eight hours' daily 
devoted to some duty or avocation ; if to hard labor the time should never 
exceed a third of the twenty-four, except in such enterprises as afford 
pleasure. The remaining third of the day belongs to culture. By this is 
meant the satisfying of some law of improvement, including pleasure, joy, 
moral taste and ethics. Thus the day of twenty-four hours has three divisions 
of eight hours each : one division for sleep, one for duty, and one for improve- 
ment. Let us see what is meant by the last. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



330 HOME COUBSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE EIGHT. 

LESSON DCLX. 
Improvement. — That which brings honest joy is an improvement to 
health, mind and heart. The playground is the theatre of Nature. 
There is nothing sombre about the soul. The body only is plunged in 
gloom. Inactivity is buried, and age is the ground of sepulcher. The 
mind of one who rests too much is moody and sick; from this habit comes 
insanity. Let us get all the sunshine we can, both from the sky and the 
deep welkin of our souls. A man or woman who would make life philo- 
sophical must cultivate pleasure, thought, ethics and moral taste ; and 
through these the real inner existence. With eight hours daily at one's dis- 
posal, it ought not to take more than a year to unbury a hidden form. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXI. 
A Buried Existence — I have travelled everywhere in search of a 
man or woman who has dug out this hidden form , but nowhere have I found 
one. Country life is mismanaged ; city life is too much on the surface. 
The farmer digs for vegetables ; the citizen cannot dig at all ; so the buried 
existence remains under ground, unknown to humanity. Do you wish to 
prove that it is a real existence, a form as substantial as the body ? Let us 
take shovel and pick, and hunt for it. Resolution is the shovel and per- 
sistence is the pick. Few persons can make a resolution. In the solitude 
of some hour when a gentle spirit whispers the word, the angel within us 
forms it into a flame of resolv'e ; we are sure that nothing can daunt us — 
nothing, not even life or death can swerve us frona the determination ! — when 
the devil, breathing one of his coined words into the voice of some innocent 
agent, says "silly" — "crank" — or calls a name that blows out our flame in 
the instant. Thus Satan rules the world through his epithets ; and he has a 
nickname or slang word for every pure motive in life. How long could you 
support a good work, after the devil, through some innocent friend, had 
called you a "crank," or a "reformer?" It is against abuse that the battle 
of the soul must be fought. I am sure that no person can inherit immortality 
who is not willing to endure abuse. This then is the first step toward un- 
burying the hidden existence. Resolve to do it, and resolve to persevere. 
Be willing to be abused, and remember that attacks from the Evil One are 
battle scars for Heaven ; without which true souls cannot be made. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at ihe end of Tome Ten. 



THE IDEAL CITY. 331 



LESSON DCLXII. 
How to Unbury It. — If you desire to uncover this hidden existence, 
you must make the most of what opportunities are offered you, in the way 
of adopting the Principles of Right, stated in Tome Nine. You must then 
examine the circumstances of your present life, and determine in how far 
they may be modified to meet the suggestions, or any of them, made in the 
Ideal City. Do not make any rash or ill-considered move. Stay where you 
are until you can do better. If you see your way clear to organize a small 
or large company to found an Ideal City, or to move to one founded by 
others, then accept the opportunity of entering upon this larger life ; until 
then, endeavor to adopt as many of these principles and suggestions as you 
possibly can. These are the early steps, and the only steps. Use your 
shovel and pick daily — your resolution and perseverance. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays, ' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXIII. 
What It Is. — The dirt will be thrown aside, and some mud may fall 
on you ; but you will find a new existence — a buried form, laid away in all 
lives, and rarely, if ever, unearthed. It is what I call the existence of a 
philosopher — of that second self of every man or woman who desires to 
extract from life the highest pleasure and practical happiness ; and to cast 
away the shadows that infest the present mode of living. Nor is this ideal 
being far away. I will guarantee that if you dig but a few days — read and 
adopt the Principles of Right and some of the easier suggestions of the Ideal 
City, you will obtain such proofs of this buried existence as will convince 
you of the absolute truth of it all. This philosophy is not a series of ser- 
mons, nor is it ethical advice, but an exposition of the wonders of human 
nature and the possibilities of human experience. I plead for a new order 
of things in and out of the church, in and out of religion, in and out of 
society. Do not let the Evil One suggest to you that this aims to compete 
with religious works ; its department is exclusively its own ; it coincides 
with exact rectitude wherever found, whether in mathematics, chemistry, 
biology or humanity. With these constant cautions before you, lay aside all 
thoughts except to achieve a broader pleasure in life, to find and to adopt 
your new existence. Let us examine some of the steps thereto. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



332 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

LESSON DCLXIV. 
Location — We have thus far learned that the Ideal City must consist 
of estates, none of which must be smaller than one-fourth of an acre, nor 
larger than two acres ; and that life herein must be divided into the thirds 
of a day. To find such a location as will favor the binding of an Ideal 
City is quite an easy matter. I have seen more than a thousand favorable 
places ; every state in the Union having them. The earning of a living is 
at the present time so intimately connected with one's place of residence that 
it controls the whole matter among the dependent classes. Assuming for the 
purposes of the present consideration that a person has laid away ten thous- 
and dollars or more, or that the locality is convenient to one's avocation — as 
in the suburb of a town or city — we find the only other requisites to be pure 
air, good soil, and good water. We must have plenty of pure air, free from 
malaria or poison ; soil that is capable of bearing fruits, vines, flowers, trees, 
and vegetation ; and water, either pure or capable of being distilled or puri- 
fied by the Ralston process. The location is then complete. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rviles for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXY. 

Cultivation. — An inert person is not happy, is not healthy, is not nor- 
mal. Life demands activity, real, earnest, but not exhausting. From the 
soil we sprang, through the processes of vegetation we have our beiug, in 
the flowers we have the mirrored embryo of the soul ; and among our 
ancestors and co-relations we should spend some minutes every day of the 
growing year. The Bible decrees it, principle teaches it, and experience 
confirms it. Every man, and every women even, should spend a few min- 
utes or more in the laboratory of Nature, if only to train a vine, trim a limb, 
or stir the soil about some struggling bush. How much better to occupy 
oneself in the cultivation of the land. "God made the country, man made 
the town." 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXYI. 

Noblemen. — All ages, all countries, all bards, and all wise men have 

declared that the tillers of the soil are earth's noblemen. There is some 

reason for this unanimity. In the first place, all religious tradition places 

the crown of honor upon the farmer ; in the second place, all human beings 



THE IDEAL CITY. 333 



are dependent upon his toil. Let him cease and there would be no food in 
the world ; even the cattle would become extinct, as far as man's meat is 
concerned. But more than this, the tiller of the soil is the only actual pro- 
ducer in the world. He makes something out of nothing. The miner is a 
finder of hidden wealth ; the farmer is a maker of it. The artisan may 
turn one thing into another, but he originates nothing. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXVII. 
The False The farmer who turns his land into commercial produc- 
tion merely, makes less money, lives less, and enjoys less. Out West they 
raise large fields of corn, receive a grossly inadequate price, and buy their 
food at the stores. Few of them know what fruit is. In the South they 
attempt to force the soil to yield one crop o.nly, chiefly cotton, and live as 
paupers as far as food is concerned. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXVIII. 
The True. — Whether the estate is one-fourth of an acre or two 
acres, in the Ideal City, or a large farm in the country, the land should be 
used first to raise everything that the soil and climate afford toward home 
support. This is the first law of land tillage. The residue of the land, 
or parts of it, may then be turned to commercial purposes. Figure this 
problem in any way you will, the result is always the same : a farmer who 
does not follow the inevitable law and demand of Nature is sure to live less 
comfortably, and to be poorer financially. Ignorance of fine farming is the 
chief reason for the general reversing of this rule ; but let every man learn. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXIX. 

Needs The first needs from land are food, shelter and clothing. 

This is the sum of life. They should be procured with the least possible 
strain upon the muscles. A farmer who has been educated can easily 
reduce his hours to one-third of the twenty-four. Getting up at daylight 
and grinding the bones till sunset in summer is barbarism. All shelter 
comes from land, in timber and minerals. Learn to make the most of it, 
and get better houses. Clothing is the direct or indirect product of the 
soil; if you buy it from the stores, do something toward furnishing it to 



334 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

the factories in the form of raw material. How much food are you com- 
pelled to buy, that you cannot possibly raise ? It is better for your land and 
for your health that you produce a varied crop. Single crops exhaust the 
soil. The deadest land in America is in Virginia, — once the richest. They 
raise one or two kinds for commercial purposes, and live on hog and hominy. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXX. 
Supplies. — What a wonderful variety of food you can raise on an 
acre ; enough for summer and winter. Wheat, corn and beans are man's 
best foods ; wheat and beans supplying more nutriment than meat. But 
there are three hundred things that an acre or two will produce. What you 
cannot use, sell or exchange for what you cannot raise. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXI. 
Ideal Products — Apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes, apricots, 
oranges, — what of these can you raise, and in how many varieties? Did 
you ever try to eat small fruits from the bushes and vines, and notice how 
different they taste from those that are bought and eaten after their glame 
has departed? If fruits are neglected the body suffers; and the physician 
gives some drug in its place. How many men and women have lost all 
desire for wholesome fruit? Raise all the varieties of vegetables and grains 
you can. I know ladies of culture and wealth who believed that God 
commanded the race to till the soil as a part of life's religion, who raised 
fruits and vegetables for the mere glory of being real producers. One 
summer they cultivated, from the seed-potato to the digging, several bushels 
of potatoes; and found the work (?) mere exercise, or varied pleasure. 
One very delicate woman, of great wealth, raised a mess of green peas each 
spring ; the slight effort being nothing more tiring than a game of croquet 
with a parson. It is everybody's duty to do something; and, once started, 
the love of the principle will extend the labor. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXII. 
Poverty. — Poverty is a crime. When the pilgrims came to this 
country, they were met by hostile Indians in the dead of winter. To-day 



THE IDEAL CITY. 335 



we think we cannot live without money and the products of factories. 
What money had the pilgrims, or their descendants for many years? 
Where were their factories? In the midst of alarms they were happy. 
Their offspring were for many generations the noblest heritage of man. 
Their existence was the crystallization of all the moral forces then on 
the earth, and no age has equalled them. Privation was outbalanced by 
genuine comfort. Go back to any page of Xew England history, when 
money and the products of factories were alike unknown, and tell me how 
much inferior was their condition to that of the hundreds of thousands of 
miserable wretches who starve half the year, huddled in diseased tenements 
in large cities, because work is scarce or wages low. The men who got 
their living from the soil alone became the progenitors of a sturdy race of 
long lived sons ; those who supplicate the white hand of capital to-day for 
starvation wages are breeders of invalids and imbeciles. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXIII. 

Source of Prosperity. — But we hear the remark that farming is 
overdone, the products do not bring enough to pay for the cost of labor. 
The colonial farmers had no market. The mistake of the American farmers 
is their commercial idea, — a belief in raising to sell. The principle is wrong. 
A tiller of the soil must first look to his home supply, and place in his 
house and barn a year's wealth of food, for himself, his animals and fowls. 
If he has no house worth calling a home, he can easily exchange his surplus 
products for the materials and labor. Thus he has shelter and food. He 
need not suffer for clothing. In the country he is king, in the workshop of 
the city he is serf. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXIV. 
Large Cities. — The large cities are the curse of the nation. They 
make crime and sensationalism possible, as well as trusts and combinations 
of capital. I admit that for the sake of amassing wealth the large city is 
a great convenience; but where one succeeds in his ambition, a hundred 
souls are damned, and a hundred hopes of prosperity are buried in the 
sepulcher of toil. For the reckless and unscrupulous rich the cities are 



336 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

gods of worship. For health, home, happiness and Heaven, humanity must 
go elsewhere. These are serious words and true words. The soul's path- 
way lies not there. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,"' at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXV. 

Ideal Settlement.^A large collection of small sized farms, centering 
to an Ideal City, is the model plan of national life. It is not a new idea, 
for time has marked many such settlements. They exist in America to-day, 
in part; the essential principle being absent in the lives of the inhabitants. 
Let us decrease the size of individual farms, and increase the size of the 
town lots. No man needs over ten acres of land, and forty should be 
the limit. On forty acres he can raise all that he needs, and produce a 
large, surplus to sell or exchange. With a little education as to economy of 
plans he can do all his work in eight hours a day, and straighten that bent 
form into the erect stature of manhood. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXVI. 
Common Interests. — The individuals of a community owe each 
other certain duties which should be enforced by law. While one may 
be ambitious to maintain health, the neglect of sanitary regulations by 
others may defeat the most careful plans. It is only by union that the 
best interests of a community are preserved. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXVII. 
Weeds. — For instance, weeds are the DEVS of the garden. They 
ripen, produce their seed, and decay. Wherever there are weeds there 
are bacteria; and without bacteria there can be no malaria or common 
fevers. Miasma rises from weeds by the aid of moisture. Weeds furnish 
the germs of poison, even before they ripen and decay ; food-bearing plants 
do not. If a careful man has his weeds mown frequently, they will die 
out, as their seeds do not mature ; but a careless neighbor will let his 
ripen, and the wind will scatter them to the adjoining land. No weed 
should ever be permitted to be half grown, and all should be cut before 
they are six inches high. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



THE IDEAL CITY. 337 



LESSON DCLXXVIII. 

Drainage. — The best possible system of draining the land and of 
carrying off the sewerage of the house by safe underground pipes, should be 
adopted. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end ot Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXIX. 

"Water — Well water, spring water, and all land-locked water is dan- 
gerous. The house should be supplied with some pipe system of filtered 
water. In the country the good effects of pure air are overcome by well water 
and ignorance of wholesome foods. Mutual interest should be fostered, and 
combination for all the blessings of health is an imperative law. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXX. 

Drinking Water Necessity compels men to accept the inevitable ; 

indifference permits them to tolerate dangers, after the law of grim necessity 
becomes inert. The recklessness of health is seen in the lives of men 
everywhere, especially on the farm, and in cities almost as often. The first 
requirement of a building location is its nearness to a well. The problem 
of obtaining drinking water is one of the greatest in every family life. The 
well is, for the time being, a blessing for which all persons should be thank- 
ful. It cannot be improved, until circumstances are more favorable to im- 
provement ; but first, last and always, it is dangerous. It is merely a hole 
in the ground where water naturally falls. Any hole, shallow or deep, will 
serve to collect water. A well reaches a stratum where the flow is perma- 
nent. All this water has originally come from the clouds. 

For Essaj's on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXI. 

Nature's Still. — As we have stated before, the pure water rises from 
the general quantity in vapor, and, falling to the earth as rain, is free from 
the dangers of all ordinary water. It has lost its disease germs which seek 
to destroy the body, and it has left behind the calcareous deposits which 
produce old age and clog the arteries of heart and brain. Distillation could 
do no more, and no less. Rain water, if it can be obtained in a pure state, 
is the most valuable of man's physical blessings. It is hard to get, for it 
becomes contaminated from contact with dirty roofs and deleterious matter. 

22 



338 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

It is hard to keep, for bacteria seek it eagerly, owing to its purity. Yet it 
has furnished the human race with much of its purest water. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays, " at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXII. 
Lakes and Reservoirs — Under ordinarily favorable conditions the 
water of city and town water- works is nearly pure rain water; and is vastly 
more healthful than well or cistern water. It is exposed to the open air, 
oxygen, sunshine and glame. By its settling and commotion it loses much 
of its injurious matter. Moving water in the open air purifies itself. Dead 
water, held in cisterns and wells, is not so good ; though cistern water is 
much safer than well water. The latter is the cause of disease and death in 
many a household where the solemn reaper should not have entered. But 
the helplessness and indifference of the general public, when muddy reser- 
voir water is served them, permit the abuse of an otherwise great blessing. 
There should be some person who has the energy to arouse the people from 
their apathy, and to see that pure water is provided. Our demand is, — the 
purest water that is obtainable. Money has no place in the discussion. You 
may pay ten dollars or twenty dollars a year for water ; what is a hundred 
dollars ; what are nights and days of untiring exertion, compared with that 
vacant chair at the table? Count the deaths of the year in your community ; 
a large majority of them were caused by impure water, either directly or 
indirectly originating the fatal illness, or weakening the tissues until they 
became a prey to the ravages of disease. If ignorance was the weapon, who 
was the murderer? If indifference to the dangers of drinking water was 
the blow that slew the life, who is indictable at the bar of God ? It is an 
easily known fact, that the water you drink daily is not healthful, — is, per- 
haps, dangerous. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXIIL 

Distillation. — All Nature seeks to distill her water. The clouds and 
rains are the world's still. But the fruits that hold their juices are smaller 
types of the great process ; for only the purest water of earth enters the 
grape, the apple, the peach or the pear. Here are the four best fruits of the 
earth ; the apple being king. Let them be raised freely. Let every home 
have its small orchard. Let every man, woman and child be the planter of 



THE IDEAL CITY. 339 



an apple tree ; not one capable only of producing sour and disagreeable 
apples, but a standard variety indigenous to the soil. And all fruits should 
be raised, for their health and their distilled juices. It is a part of the doc- 
trine of proper living. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXIV. 

Orchards In the Ideal City we may see only a dream for many 

years to come, if we look for its entirety of construction ; but the day is not 
far distant when the good sense, the moral sense, the religious sense, the 
common sense of the more thoughtful classes will cause them to see the 
greatness of so important a movement as the partial building of our Ideal 
City. The first step is the demand for more land to each home. I would 
strongly advise every head of a family to plant a standard apple tree as 
soon as he gets the land, a tree whose fruit is juicy and palatable, not sweet 
nor very sour. The planting of this tree I would have made as important 
as any event in home life. The site should be well marked, the soil dug 
deep, loads of good earth placed at considerable depth, and the utmost care 
taken of every detail. So every member of the family, the wife, the hus- 
band, the grandparent, and the children who are old enough to understand 
the value of fruit, should plant some tree, and be ever after credited with 
the deed. It may be argued that it must require years before the fruit is to 
be had ; but years slip away very quickly and time will bring its rewards. 
Fruits are the medicines of Nature, the stayer of disease, the prolongator 
of youth, and the bar to the approach of old age. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXV. 

The Planting. — Get a record book — a Family Record — of heavy and 
durable paper. In it credit to each member of the family in turn the great 
deed of planting at least one tree in the home-orchard. How beautiful the 
thought that one roof shelters you and yours, that you have a home which 
you really own, that it is surrounded by spacious land on all four sides, that 
a home-garden grows near the windows, in which the beauty of flowers 
smiles back to the eager joy that lights your face as you watch them, and 
that, somewhere on the most blessed spot of earth, a home-orchard is planted 
and hurrying to mature its fruit for your health and pleasure. Now let the 



340 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE EIGHT. 



planting be thorough and scientific. Procure, regardless of the few extra 
cents of cost, a fine type of tree from a responsible nursery ; not from trav- 
eling salesmen or lurid pictures. Write to the nursery man ; tell him what 
you want, and what it is for. While the tree is coming, prepare the soil ) 
but be sure to have the tree as large as can be safe to ensure its thriftiest 
growth. I have my way of preparing the soil, and my reasons for it ; which 
I will state. I believe in great care and effort, because the better develop- 
ment of the tree in after years will repay the slight additional cost of the 
planting. My attention, some years ago, was called to the unusually luxuriant 
growth of an apple tree in the corner of a farm, while others around it had 
long been dead. On inquiry I was answered by certain mythical tales of the 
wonderful age of the tree, which I could not believe. It was found, how- 
ever, that the tree had been planted three generations before by the grand- 
father of the owner ; and that, before planting, a hole six feet deep had 
been dug and the first six or eight inches had been filled by small stones, to 
serve as a drainage to the roots. Above this the very best soil had been 
placed, to give the roots free action. I have known of others who have 
adopted this method and in every instance the tree grows more rapidly, bears 
earlier, and produces annually larger crops. So I advise the planting of the 
apple tree as a great deed, and it should be done with due ceremony, a record 
being kept of the time, place, kind of fruit, and the name of the planter. 
All honor to him or her who pays homage to the planter of the fruit-tree ! 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXVI. 
Small Fruits. — The blood needs distilled water, and the nerves and 
brain require phosphates. Both these necessities are found in the large, 
juicy varieties of blackberries. 1 hardly like to call them fruit, for they 
contain the richest elements of the body. ISTot the small, hard black- 
berry, nor the thick-cored blackberry, nor black raspberries; — but the large, 
juicy thorough-bred blackberry. Raspberries are not good, even at their 
best. I once said, and I still repeat, that if people were to eat blackberries, 
fresh from the vines in their season, and preserved in a natural state through 
the autum, winter and spring, there would be few invalids on the face of 
the globe. Let it then be considered honorable to plant bushes ; and to 
cultivate small fruits abundantly for the ideal home. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



THE IDEAL CITY. 341 



LESSON DCLXXXVII. 
Old Age. — It is by these means that the body is cleansed and protected 
from the dangers of drinking water. The latter contains so much calcareous 
matter in some instances, that those who are compelled to drink it becomes 
old and wrinkled at a premature age. The juices of fruits, especially of 
apples without their skin, are very effectual in counteracting and dissolving 
the old-age deposits in water; so that a person who eats fruit freely will not 
suffer from this mineral impurity in the water. But what of those who 
drink well water and eat little or no fruit? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXVIII. 
Soil Dangers. — There is another and far more serious danger in well 
water, and sometimes in cisterns and reservoirs. Take a handful of earth 
and let it come in contact with a scratch on the flesh ; a slight inflammation 
will follow. If the scratch be deep enough, or much of the blood be ex- 
posed, lockjaw is almost always sure to follow. Such fatal maladies as 
diphtheria, cholera and small pox, and almost without exception, typhoid 
fever, are caught from drinking water. The surface of the soil is loaded 
with disease germs, and every rain carries them down to the strata beneath, 
whence they find their way into the wells. There are springs, brooks and 
little rivers below the surface of the earth ; they flow long distances, and 
may carry the germs of disease a long way. Even vaults which are sup- 
posed to be far enough off not to contaminate wells, may and often do deposit 
their poisons in the soil directly above the strata, or one of them, which 
lead to wells whose snpplies are fed from the waters which flow in these 
channels. Well-water therefore is death- water. Those who drink it are 
engaged in a constant warfare between DEVS and ANGS ; and, when a crisis 
comes, the end is more certain. With the superior advantages of health in 
light, air and food, the farmer or rural citizen is under the ban of death 
water. Towns, villages, and settlements often present an alarming fatality 
at certain times. The water they drink makes epidemics possible. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays." at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCLXXXIX. 

Ideal Water By slight expense a number of families may coml)ine 

to procure distilled water. It can be made and delivered for one cent a 



342 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPSY—TOME EIGHT. 

quart ; and if the still is owned in the family, the cost is practically nothing, 
after the first expense of buying it. The boiling of the water destroys all 
disease germs, and evaporated water leaves behind all mineral deposits. The 
steam, when condensed, is free from the dangers which lurk in nearly all 
waters. Years of life and health are purchased by taking Nature at her 
word and procuring by her own process the pure fluid of the earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXC. 
Ice. — All ice should be made from distilled water. Freezing does not 
destroy the germs of disease. Such measures of government as may secure 
honesty and purity, should be provided by a board of governors. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCI. 
Stores. — The establishment of a new mode of life for the purpose of 
overcoming the evils which almost overwhelm humanity at the present time, 
should be properly commenced ; for, after an evil has become embedded in 
the very heart of the customs of a community, it is then too late to cry 
reform. The commercial world is at this day burdened with a criminal 
class of wealthy manufacturers of adulterated foods ; and more particularly 
in America than in Europe. This country is so free and so full of freedom 
that almost any crime may be committed without fear of punishment. Bad 
milk is knowingly sold, even when the milk man takes it from diseased cows. 
Butter is so freely adulterated in this land of freedom that, by actual obser- 
vation in the best markets, eighty per cent, of that which is offered as prime 
butter is impure or is a clear adulteration. The sausage-varieties of food 
are made often of dead and diseased horse flesh, even by some of the so-called 
reputable makers. These are merely units in the hundreds of cases of food 
frauds. For this reason, among others, the time has arrived when people 
should organize for protection from this era of freedom. For such ends the 
Ideal City is to be created. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCII. 
Board of Governors. — Let us believe that the people are sufliciently 
interested in the new philosophy of life to contemplate the organization of 
an Ideal City. Before the first step is taken a board of governors should be 



THE IDEAL CITY. 343 



self-constituted, having jurisdiction only over a single community. The 
character and honesty of the members of the board should be thoroughly 
known. All hangers on, who follow like vultures in the wake of every 
reform, should be made known and eliminated from the prospective com- 
munity. The reason why the board should be self-constituted is that no 
irresponsible parties would engage to become the founders of so great an 
interest. 

For Essays on this subject, see '' Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCIII. 
Government The method of government must be left to the judg- 
ment of the self-constituted board, except where this philosophy expressly 
provides the requirements; in which case there must be no conflict. The 
laws herein laid down are not ephemeral or empirical ; they are deductions 
from the fixed principles of Nature ; and, until humanity is willing to go to 
the great mother of us all for the laws of life, there will always exist the 
fearful inequalities of health, wealth and government which make the rich 
miserable and the poor envious. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCIV. 
Justice — Mercy is always a merit, even at the ex])ense of justice, 
when but one person's misconduct affects but one other life. There the line 
must be drawn. Mercy holds no place in the consideration of questions 
which affect a community. The exactitude of the laws is the greatest pre- 
vention of crime in human government; and, if the purpose be to save men 
from becoming criminals, this principle must sway all courts and executives. 
A man who wrongs an individual may be shown all the mercy of which the 
heart is capable, providing the wrong goes no further ; but he who is a 
public menace should be shown all justice and no mercy. The reason is two- 
fold : first, the exactitude of the law, as soon as it is known to be all justice 
and no mercy, will deter men from entering a career of crime, while the 
feeble hand of mercy encourages men to become criminals; second, the 
thorough administration of justice, unalloyed by the soft taint of milk-sop 
mercy, will rid the community of criminals who could not be routed in any 
other way. Come into the police court; here sits a man before whom so 
many cases of crime are brought that he is nauseated with their stench ; he 



344 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

is said to be better qualified to judge of men and motives, and the measure 
of justice necessary to protect the public, that his judgment is called in- 
fallible. In ordinary life he was less than an ordinary man and lawyer, or 
he would not have accepted so pitiable a position in order to gain a liveli- 
hood. His judgment, good or bad as it may be in the average channels of 
intercourse with men, is warped by the one-sidedness of his experience. He 
sees, hears, knows only crime, crime, crime ! There is brought before him 
a sleek young man charged with keeping a gambling outfit. He is convicted 
and placed on the mercy of the court. It is his first offence, and first offences 
are shown great mercy. The usual plea is made, the defendant is stated to 
be a young man who is sorry for his crime, who will surely reform now that 
the law has spied him out ; and it would be a sad miscarriage of justice to 
plunge him in prison with low offenders, or experienced jail-birds, and thus 
make reform forever impossible. So the tired judge takes his personal 
bonds, and a life of crime is given a long boom from this simple-minded 
nonsense. Every act of mercy shown toward one who is a menace to the 
community is an act of gross injustice toward that community. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at tlie eud of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCV. 
Public Offences. — Happiness is the right of all who live. It is 
denied to all or nearly all who live. One who will analyze life must 
conclude that it is wrongly borne. One who will look long and patiently 
into the operations of Nature and all her forces, must agree with the 
primary fact that happiness is everybody's right. Between a human being 
and the enjoyment of that right, stand two barriers : one, the moral wreck 
of self; the other, the long list of public offences which cast a shadow over 
all living. If we are blessed with a home, it is beseiged by human vermin, 
called tramps ; if property is saved by hard toil, the highway robber, or 
midnight burglar threatens its safety and our lives ; if we visit a strange 
city, there are expert criminals who decoy and rob; if a public gathering 
calls out large numbers, the thief is in the midst ; if a settlement of 
pleasant homes is established, with schools, churches, and life's beautiful 
attractions, a rum seller opens his shop to allure the father, the brother, the 
son ; if the minds of the young and old are becoming cultured and their 
dispositions sweet-tempered through the influences of good literature, some 



THE IDEAL CITY. 345 

newspaper pours its hell-broth of lies and sensationalism into the lap of 
refinement and drives all hope of purity from the lives of the people ; if 
character has grown to the citadel of fame, the black-hearted slanderer is 
abroad like a bastard pestilence to devour the work of a lifetime. The 
great public at large are helplessly bound and unable to shake off the 
fetters of this degrading slavery; the reason is, indifference. To tide over 
a small evil, for the sake of quiet slumber on the edge of the abyss, is the 
political economy of the uninteresled public. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCVI. 
Tramps. — Look at the childish policy displayed in dealing with 
tramps. They are said to be harmless; yet, in the United States in 1893, 
they criminally assaulted more than three hundred women and girls, 
murdered over one hundred men and seventy-eight women ; caused several 
persons, through alarm, to lose their reason ; drove away or prevented many 
others from working ; and destroyed nearly half a million dollars worth of 
property. Sitting in a home where, of all homes, one should be happy and 
contented, the wife, the daughter, is terrorized by the horrid image of some 
hideous tramp passing the window, and sneaking to the kitchen. The 
invalid, for whom in days of peril during the crisis of the fever the street 
was roped to prevent the annoyance of the noise of wagons over the paved 
street, is compelled to see the ugly, crime-stained faces of desperate tramps 
stealing past the window, and lurking at the open door; and this many 
times during her convalescence. The mother whose prayers ascend to 
Heaven for the welfare of the unborn child must mark her offspring with 
the stealthy eye, the filthy face, and threatening gaze of men who scorn 
work and openly advocate indecency. The little boy or girl, left in the 
yard or at the door to play, is terrorized by the tramps and their unwashed 
stench. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCVIL 

Cowards. — This tramp-system is wrong, is admitted to be wrong; but 

is growing. Its growth is due to the fact that a single family gives food, 

drink or clothing to them. There are added yearly to the tramps of the 

country not less than one hundred thousand recruits, due simply to this 



346 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

one weakness. It is not charity which prompts one to give to them ; it is 
fear; and, being fear, it is cowardice. Whoever feeds a tramp at the 
door, or on private premises, is a coward and a public offender. The 
house becomes marked, and the great brotherhood of won't-works visit it. 
The proof of this is easily established. Once a certain street was cleared 
of tramps by the agreement of all the families to deny all who called. 
The vermin-laden fiends kept clear of the entire street, and some enjoyment 
of life was afterward possible. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCVIII. 
Solution. — Justice proclaims that he who will not work shall not eat; 
that it is a sin to feed one who refuses to labor. This law demands respect. 
Let it be once known that nothing shall be given and tramps will forsake 
their profession. In the knowledge of the absolute hopelessness of obtain- 
ing donations from door to door, there would be no case of real charity to 
arise ; for the actual, honest unfortunate would not adopt the method which 
has given rise to the most degrading system of liberty ever known in any 
age, — the freedom of depriving homes of their peace and comfort ; for the 
most uncomfortable of all homes are those that are invaded by tramps, where, 
when the evening hour draws on, the stealthy tread is sure to take us una- 
wares. I believe that it is the intention of Nature to deprive her criminals 
of the powers of reproduction ; that the first law of Nature is labor, not 
severe or drudging, but honest ; and that he who despises labor or refuses to 
work, in as far as he is able, is guilty of crime against the great author of 
our bodies. God and Nature gave us muscles ; their use is law to health 
and honesty ; their disuse is disease and wickedness. Idleness leaves us 
prey to sin. Until the muscles are eliminated from our constitution we are 
not entitled to the right of discarding their use. The solution of the tramp 
question is justice; exact, unvarying, unremitting justice; justice that de- 
nies food to the viciously idle, and that compels the honest and unfortunate 
idle to seek aid through channels that do not give opportunity to the vicious. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCXCIX. 

The Unfortunate Of all the tramps in the country, one in a hundred 

may prove to be honest and unfortunate, — a real object of charity. It is 



THE IDEAL CITY. 347 



better that ninety-nine guilty men shall be fed, than that one innocent man 
shall be turned away hungry from our doors, — so say the philanthropists. 
The father who seeks work, the wayward brother who is returning to his 
home, the husband who labored for his wife and children, — may be plodding 
wearily back to his family; and to permit him to starve would be both in- 
human and monstrous. With this theory all persons agree. But there is 
neither need nor possibility of any man, either the vicious fraud, or the 
genuine sufferer, being in a position to starve. There is no philosophy 
which teaches such doctrine. Of all men who are entitled to sympathy and 
charity, is that one who has been an honest laborer. But of him we shall 
speak in subsequent lessons. In the Ideal City he will never be an object of 
charity, for we do not believe in poverty. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCC. 
Imposters. — The principle which we gather from Nature's law is, 
that all who beg from door to door are imposters ; although in the ordinary 
usage of the word, they are not so in fact. A principle can have no excep- 
tions , therefore the system of begging should be eliminated from every 
community. It is a habit of the lowest degradation, both to the asker 
and the giver. It presents misery in a form often concocted for the purpose 
of appealing to the heart. When abject poverty is honest, it is chargeable 
to the fault of government, and there the responsibility should be placed. 
No begging should be allowed in any community; all tramps, beggars and 
givers to tramps and beggars are alike guilty of crime that is wrong per se. 
This rule has no relation to the duty of alms-giving and charity. Its pur- 
pose is to eradicate a system that is dangerous to life and the enjoyment of 
home, and that encourages laziness, filth and viciousness. Were it not for 
the fact that the gentle humanity of nearly all men and women is touched 
by the sad misfortune of others, the nuisance would be short-lived. For 
the sake of real charity, let us abolish all begging. In the Ideal City it is 
a wrong to give to beggars ; and both the giver and receiver are to be 
punished. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



348 ROME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

LESSON DCCI. 
Alms. — All persons who have plenty should give from their store to 
some common fund, from which others less fortunate should be permitted to 
draw, not as a privilege but as a right. The transaction should be charita- 
ble as far as the alms-giver is concerned, but a legalized pension in its rela- 
tion to the receiver. What may have been the custom of the past, the prin- 
ciple is not disturbed by its application in such form as to prevent fraud and 
vicious idleness. To give alms is a duty imposed in all religions ; and, if it 
were not, the broad general religion taught us by Nature commands it. The 
fortunate in this world's goods are never genuinely happy unless they give 
and give freely. It is unsafe to shut one's soul against the appeals of the 
miserable ; no one can afford to do it. For real honest happiness go to the 
man or woman who seeks out misfortune and voluntarily alleviates it. The 
difference is a broad one : the beggar plies his trade as an avocation, and the 
alms-giver is never begged of. All honor to those who search for the haunts 
of misery, either in person or by some indirect method, and vouchsafe to 
help the needy. I like the ring of that wealthy American woman who never 
gives to those who ask, but gives freely to hundreds of patient toilers. At 
an example of true method, the following case will throw light on righs 
charity : a man on a street car heard the conductor tell an acquaintance that 
he had been watching night after night at the bedside of his sick wife, and 
working by day in order to earn money to keep the wolf from the door. It 
was an instance of genuine merit. The facts were found to be true and 
abundant relief was given. To a man of sober habits who is willing to 
work, tbe deepest pocket of charity should be outpjured. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCII. 
Poor-Houses. — At first thought a poor-house is a blessing, for it pro- 
vides a place of refuge for the unfortunate ; but we will have none of them 
in our Ideal City. There are but two places in this world for human 
beings : in jail or at home. A poor-house is another name for a jail. A 
visit to the prisons, asylums and poor-houses of our beloved laud presents 
little choice between them. They are charities to the public or to the indi- 
viduals ; and necessities under our system. Of all the wretched prospects 
of age is that which makes a public or private alms-house possible. To that 



THE IDEAL CITY. 349 



dismal end the fearing heart beats the tattoo of many a weary march through 
life. It is abominable, horrid, awful. The home is the place for the sick, 
the old and the decrepit. The church is the general home of the religious, 
but its practical beneficience should place a frame over all who are not grossly 
unworthy, and twine garlands of love at every cottage door as at every 
palace. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj's," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCTII. 
Producers. — The body is supported by the food that is eaten ; food is 
produced by labor ; all are consumers, some are producers. The producer 
is the true laborer. All that we eat, drink, wear or use, comes from the 
soil. Every particle of the silks, woolens, or cottons that make up our cloth- 
ing came from the soil by the industry of man. So all that constructs or 
adorns our home was taken by human industry from the soil. We and our 
property, our gold, our diamonds, our vast buildings, all came from the lap 
of earth by the toil of humanity. To the earth we are indebted. The 
noblest laborer is he who is closest to the earth in his daily duties ; and 
the food-producer ranks highest of this class. City life is the life of pov- 
erty for the poor, and unhappy wealth for the rich. Say what they will, 
there are no happy homes where there is no land and no growing nature sur- 
rounding the dwellings of the rich ; and city contamination taints the sweet- 
est of budding womanhood and pinches the growth of every young man's 
heart. I would much rather see one continuous city of two-acre estates, 
extending for hundreds of miles, than the dense mass of mingled poverty 
and affluence. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCIV. 
Classes. — The world is made up of all classes, but foremost among 
them is the vast majority-class of men and women who toil for the long 
working years of a dreary life and suffer in old age for the comforts and 
necessities of the humblest existence. I am not of the laboring class, for I 
have been a student and writer ; but I have planted scores of trees that are 
now blessing others ; I have tilled the soil, worked with the hammer, and 
given my muscles liberal exercise in honest duties, yet I am not in or of the 
so-called laboring classes. With means more than sufficient for my support. 



350 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

I am not of the wealthy classes. My sympathies are with the rich and poor, 
the toiler and the misguided. I speak for no class, but for all. Whatever 
principle underlies human conduct, and human duties, is philosophy. No 
broader, deeper principle can be known or imagined than that he who works 
should win. Socialism aims at the levelling of all classes to one common 
equality ; but Nature decrees otherwise. Anarchy would place the rewards 
of industry at the mercy of the mob. Classes and social separation are 
imperative as long as mental and physical endowments are unequal. Real 
equality is the placing of every man in his proper division of society ; the 
cur in his manger ; the toiler in his home ; the rich man in his palace. What 
can be honestly and fairly acquired should be freely enjoyed. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Eules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCV. 

Pensions. — Whatever may be the decree of special self-constituted 
judges as to the rank and rights of each man, there is a judgment in the very 
heart of Nature which declares that he who works should win. I therefore 
say that the reward of labor should be competency for all the years of life and 
age. No one can assert that there is not wealth enough in the world ; there 
is more than enough. At a time when political parties are clamoring for 
more money to carry on the commerce of the states, the banks in individual 
states of the Union are holding millions upon millions of surplus cash. 
Nor is money alone wealth. Our forefathers were happier than we are, yet 
had no money with which to do business ; prospering nevertheless. A man 
may have a home with land well stocked with trees and gardens ; yet the 
money that bought it may have purchased hundreds of similar homes. A 
pile of buildings is but constructed of rock and timber, and the man who 
counts his wealth by millions may not possess a dollar in actual cash. The 
earth itself is wealth, its surface and subsoil, its rivers, quarries and mines, 
may be sources of greater income than hoarded cash. There is, in this 
great world, enough of food, home, land and comforts for all. For this 
reason the man who works should win. His recompense should be a life- 
long pension. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



THE IDEAL CITY. 351 



LESSON DCCVI. 

Social Selfishness. — By what narrow policy the rights of toil are 
denied is seen when we understand the drift of the human heart. The 
rich are not made wealthy by their own merit. That a man should amass 
a fortune beyond a certain limit of accumulated wealth is grossly unnatural. 
It is charged to his superior mental astuteness. Grant that ; yet that any 
mental power should extract, under the name of fortune, the juices of the 
great body of national prosperity in undue proportions, is due to the error 
which is the basis of commerce, and which the people are powerless to over- 
come so long as demagogues and politicians are permitted to control the 
fabric of government. Because men are selfish they take all that they can 
get; and most of them dishonestly. Because selfishness is a sin, it is wrong 
to thus out proportion the advantages that fall to the lot of the few; yet 
no wealthy man is expected to take less than he can get, whether honestly 
or dishonestly. As long as the suffering public tolerates the wretched 
system that makes enormous fortunes possible, so long will the dishonest 
rich sap the life-blood of national prosperity. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCVIL 

The Remedy There is a remedy. It is not a dream, or a vague 

philosophy; nor does it depend upon the adoption of the plan of an Ideal 
City. In one movement of the masses of the people, orderly and by the 
ballot box, the mountains of inequality could be easily leveled to their 
proper height, without disturbing the prosperity of the rich. In order to 
arrive at the justice of this, let us find the principle. The toiler receives 
a minimum return for his efforts; never enough, even if he is richly paid. 
If he is a skilled artisan, his brain has wrought more than his hands. 
Leaving out of consideration the speculator, who is a ghastly specter in the 
commercial world, we find the man who reaps returns from his business; the 
man who becomes rich from the happy conclusions of his ingenuity, and 
the man whose intellectual prowess has struck a popular chord that rings 
dollars into his purse. The fortunes become so great that only dissipation 
could scatter it. Yet for every ounce of muscular labor, and for every 
wave of brain effort employed in these enterprises, thousands upon 
thousands of other men have made double and treble the toil of brain, 



352 KOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 



heart and mind, with absolutely no return. It is not merit that brings 
enormous wealth ; and if it were the result it is out of proportion to the 
merit. But, granting that all men should be permitted to honestly acquire 
wealth, — and I do grant it as society is now constituted, — a proportionate 
responsibility should rest upon them. Here alone is the remedy of the 
times. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCVIII. 
Taxes. — Sober toil should of itself exempt a man from all taxation; 
both himself, his family, his property, home and savings. Such must be the 
law in the Ideal City ; but such should be the law in every state, county and 
town, now and always. I do not believe that any home should be taxed ; 
yet orphans, widows, and poor toilers must respond to the yearly visit of the 
collector, while uncounted millions are wasted in the hands of the reckless 
rich. They say we must have taxes in order to support the government ; 
that equal taxation is the same to rich and poor if the percentage is the same 
for all. This fallacy is too absurd to be called reasonable, yet it is tolerated 
by the people. Let us see its error. A man has a home which is valued at 
one thousand dollars, and is taxed twenty dollars, or two per cent. ; he pays 
one fiftieth of his property, to be sure, but he does not pay it out of his 
property, but out of his earnings. Let the earnings cease, and his property 
is valueless to produce the tax, except by its sacrifice. The man who is 
worth a million dollars generally avoids a large proportion of valuation; 
but, assuming that he pays two per cent, on the million dollars, he has in the 
average run of probabilities, an income of one hundred thousand, out of 
which to pay twenty thousand. The poor man earns six hundred dollars, of 
which he can spare not a cent more than the twenty dollars ; or, in other 
words, he gives up all that he can spare. The rich man can easily give up, 
not only the twenty thousand, but the hundred thousand, and half his prin- 
cipal, without one iota of suffering for the next fifty years. His two per 
cent., therefore, should have been increased several fold ; while the poor man 
should have been relieved entirely from his taxes. This law is the demand 
of all true philosophy, and must some day be the basis of taxation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



THE IDEAL CITY. 363 



LESSON DCCIX. 

Equalities — By the study of averages drawn from life, not from 
school-books, we may easily arrive at the justice of taxation, and a scale of 
equalities. I find these things to be true : First, all homes, up to the com- 
fort limit, should be exempt from all taxation, indebtedness, execution, or 
mortgage. A man should not be permitted by his act, except with the con- 
sent of the Governing Board, to dispose of his home. It is his, for him and 
his family ; and as a home, it is part of the community, the basis of church- 
life, school-life and national prosperity. False values may make a corner 
lot worth more than one not so conspicuously situated ; but whatever is the 
comfort limit should become the dividing line of non-taxation. As money 
is now estimated, a family can live on forty dollars a week ; therefore, the 
sum of two thousand dollars per year as income, and the value of a home 
below the comfort limit should be exempt from taxation. A graded or 
sliding scale should be placed on the excess. As to incomes, three per cent, 
should be charged on the third thousand, four per cent, on the fourth. thous- 
and, five per cent, on the fifth thousand, six per cent, on the sixth thousand, 
seven per cent, on the seventh thousand, eight per cent, on the eighth thous- 
and, nine per cent, on the ninth thousand, ten per cent, on the tenth thousand, 
eleven per cent, on the eleventh thousand, twelve per cent, on the twelfth 
thousand, thirteen per cent, on the thirteenth thousand, fourteen per cent, on 
the fourteenth thousand, fifteen per cent, on the fifteenth thousand, sixteen 
per cent, on the sixteenth thousand, seventeen per cent, on the seventeenth 
thousand, eighteen per cent, on the eighteenth thousand, nineteen percent, on 
the nineteenth thousand, twenty per cent, on the twentieth thousand. At 
this stage we may pause to reflect. The man who receives an income of 
three thousand dollars per year, pays only thirty dollars to the government, 
and has two thousand, nine hundred and seventy dollars to spend. Surely 
he has enough, and he will not miss his thirty dollars one-tenth as much as 
the poor homesteader who pays twenty dollars from his six hundred. But, 
if he is fortunate enough to have an income of ten thousand dollars, he is 
to give up a trifling, — a tenth. Yet he has the sum of nine thousand dol- 
lars left on which to live. Now which is better, to squeeze the blood from 
the laborer, or reduce the fortunate man's income to one hundred and eighty 
dollars per week, or more than twenty-five dollars per day. Surely justice 

23 



354 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

has but one answer. But the poor fellow who is in receipt of twenty 
thousand dollars a year must give up twenty per cent. ! Yes, justly he 
should. He has at his control, the splendid sum of sixteen thousand dollars 
a year, or three hundred and twenty dollars a week. Shall the increase of 
taxation keep pace with the increase of income ? Most assuredly. If it is 
fifty thousand, the tax should be fifty per cent ; and here the limit of in- 
crease should be reached. All excess of this amount should be taxed one- 
half. The enormous flow of fortune every year into the hands of one man 
should not be stopped, for it is his right, at least under the present system ; 
but, as the whole of it comes from the public, at least one-half of it should 
be paid toward the support of that public which makes such enormous con- 
tributions possible. This is justice to all, and a burden to none. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCX. 
Corporations. — Vested rights cannot be infringed. What is must be 
respected. What may be begun should be controlled from principle, lest 
errors arise, and conditions like those which menace our country be here- 
after avoided. Let us see what benefit to the public accrues through the 
use of corporations. The government itself is a natural corporation ; for it 
represents that which cannot be individual or separable. Such enterprises 
as may not subsist by the union of individuals should be recognized as cor- 
porations. But the laxity of the law, otherwise known as American free- 
dom, permits these organizations to exist as a shield for commercial con- 
spiracies. In their smallest type we see the distant mine enterprise, — the 
organization of some territorial or state company with the usual sure thing. 
Good names are placed at the head, stock is issued in the best engraving, and 
the special advantages of this particular company are so many and so 
exceptional, that even shrewd men are entrapped. But the thousands of 
dollars paid in are drawn from widows and unsophisticated people who seek 
a larger income for their investments than the legitimate use of money will 
warrant. The bubble soon bursts ; no one is hurt to a large extent ; and no 
one is responsible. The corporation is a corpus, a body without a soul, and 
soon a corpse. A corpus is a live body, and a corpse is a dead one. These 
schemes are on foot every year ; and, by plausible arguments always un- 
answerable, always new in this case, old victims are often caught. But the 



THE IDEAL CITY. 356 



use of corporations for ventures in a more legitimate way, is the greater 
problem of our day. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXL 
Large Combinations. — It is true that many of the successful enter- 
prises of commercial life are due to combinations of men and means that 
would be unwieldy and impracticable in the hands of individuals. Thus 
the giant mills of a town may help to build the town ; and the establishing 
of the company is called an enterprise, a great piece of spirited industry, 
full of good to all concerned. What are the good things accomplished by 
this great corporation ? First, it builds up the town. How ? It makes real 
estate higher ; that is, the man who would buy a home must pay an exorbitant 
price for the land, which generally bars him from the convenient district of 
the town, forcing him to shabby quarters in crowded lanes or streets. The 
advance in the price of real estate is merely a profit taken from the pockets 
of the poor and given to the land sharks who prey upon every town. The 
mill corporation has done the plain classes, the royal plain classes, only 
injury ; and benefitted those who at their best are the serfs of honest toilers 
in the records of Heaven. But it increases the population. How? It intro- 
duces a mixture of floating scum into the heart of what should be a home 
community ; not that all floating laborers are objectionable, but that among 
the good are evil elements, criminals and floaters. The corporation pays a 
minimum price for all labor; the rule is not what is the labor worth, but 
what is the lowest price it can be forced to accept. From early morn till 
late in the day these bread winners toil for little pay, and, when the Sabbath 
comes, they are unfit to worship God in the spirit of peace, because they 
have given more than they have received, and their vital powers are well 
nigh exhausted. Labor produces all the wealth of the world, and no toiler 
can be at peace with society when the comforts of life are showered in the 
lap of idleness. The large combinations raise the price of land to the 
detriment of the worthy classes ; import undesirable floaters into the city ; 
keep the people poor ; and cause the erection of tenement houses and hovels 
where sunshine and happiness should meet in the attractive garb of homes, 
gardens and orchards. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



356 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

LESSON DCCXII. 

Throttled Industries — How is it that great corporations keep the peo- 
ple poor ? They throttle business by absorbing its subdivisions. I have seen 
a dozen prosperous factories, all paying good wages, crushed out of existence 
by one large combination capable of doing the business of all ; and the well- 
to-do small manufacturers compelled to go to work for the larger. This is 
and has been the story of commerce and manufactures. What is gained by 
the giant corporations, except to themselves ? In what way does the public 
reap one ounce of real benefit? It is true that one such monster factory 
absorbs the business sometimes of two hundred small ones; the two hundred 
represent as many proprietors with homes and families, as many well-paid 
foremen, as many well-paid book-keepers, and a large number of happy 
all-the-year-round artisans, most of whom have homes and families. The 
statement is not overdrawn ; it represents facts known and seen by personal 
observations. Then comes the big mill, the piece of enterprise, that raises 
the price of land and brings in a floating population ; it closes the small 
factories, destroys home-life, prosperity and happiness. I have seen rank 
weeds growing in the gardens where flowers once bloomed when the giant 
combinations were unknown ; and broken panes in the windows where roses 
nodded to every passer-by. Of what use are these absorbers of industry? 
They are colossal monuments to the selfishness of man. Every thought 
behind the motive that impels the enterprise is to kill the weaker ones ; to 
crush out all competition. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXIII. 

Dangers of Combinations. — Legislators are the most human of mor- 
tals in the sense that they are the most easily tempted. They are politicians ; 
and honesty is as foreign to their hearts as sunshine is to the mountain caves. 
I am unwilling to believe that a politician is honest, unless it can be shown 
that a gambler or a liquor-dealer is honest. There are, however, many legis- 
lators who would not steal nor tell a lie, who, nevertheless are willing to 
accept a retainer as counsel for some great corporation. A bill offered by 
Senator Beck in the most dignified and honorable body of legislators in the 
world, the American Senate, was overwhelmingly defeated, although the bill 



THE IDEAL CITY. 357 



provided merely that no Senator should, while holding office, accept a retainer 
as counsel from any corporation whose interests were properly subjects of 
legislation by that body. It is the fact that nearly all legislators are retained 
by nearly all the large business combinations of the country, and many are 
retained as counsel who are not lawyers. Whatever motive may actuate the 
man who receives money under such circumstances, it is well known that those 
who pay are intending to purchase favorable legislation. It is a bold man 
who dares to vote against a corporation, and an honest one who cannot be 
silenced ; for these giants are both dangerous and dishonest. If their acts 
were the deeds of an individual, the penitentiary would embrace them. 
Nothing but harm is the fruit of large business combinations, and they 
should be held under the strictest surveillance. The remedy is by taxation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXIV. 

Corporation Tax — AVe have seen the natural principle which under- 
lies the taxing of incomes ; the property tax is next to be considered. The 
home, the land, the private library, furniture, clothing, and tools of all per- 
sons should be forever free from all taxation and indebtedness ; unless the 
value of the home exceeds the comfort limit. All property otherwise should 
be taxed as follows : one per cent, on ten thousand dollars in value, two per 
cent, on twenty thousand, three per cent, on thirty thousand, four per cent, 
on forty thousand, five per cent, on fifty thousand, up to one hundred thousand 
dollars ; and all property owned by one individual, firm, company or corpora- 
tion, in excess of one hundred thousand dollars in value, should be taxed 
five per cent., in addition to the income-tax, except public carriers and ship 
builders. "This is too much," you will say. It is not too much. "It will 
destroy many large enterprises." It will not destroy any necessary enter- 
prise for the slight advance in the prices asked will hardly be felt. A con- 
cern with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars ought to sell five times 
this amount annually ; one per cent, added to its selling jirice is scarcely 
felt, nor would five times that amount ; yet one per cent, would pay the tax. 
All unnecessary corporations should be destroyed, but their vested rights are 
inviolable. Taxation alone can reach them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



358 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 



LESSON DCCXV. 
Floaters. — The happiness of a land is in its homes, and its garden 
plots. Cities are unnatural, unless spaciously laid out. I very much favor 
little enterprises, little business establishments, little factories, and a large 
number of proprietors, and well paid employees, each having an opportunity 
to rise in the world. As it now is, all but the diminutive few must be 
toilers. There is less opportunity for the poor man in America than in 
England. There even the highest title is attainable, as in the cases of 
D'Israeli, Gladstone, Tennyson, and Bright, who from various beginnings 
rose by their personal merits alone, until they were offered peerages by her 
royal majesty, two of them accepting the same. With a large number of 
small business proprietors in this country, the question of labor and its 
strikes would be settled, and every toiler might look forward to prospects of 
future advancement. But the present system makes laborers mere floaters ; 
wanderers from place to place in the search for work ; uncertain whether 
their tenement or hovel residence shall be for ten years or a month. These 
floaters are always a menace to the established artisans ; for a stranger may 
dislodge a resident whose associations are almost as hard to break as the act 
of living itself. Men should be trained to love some spot of earth as their 
home, to rear their families, to achieve an honorable age, and there pay the 
debt of nature. It is pitiable to see offspring scattered, and parents far 
away from their loved ones. As home marked the infancy of the new gen- 
eration its ties should grace the age of that which is passing, and will soon 
be unknown to earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," as the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXVI. 
Resources. — By the justice of this method of taxation a large revenue 
will come to the possession of the government. It should constitute a pen- 
sion fund, to be used as all pension funds may be, in caring for the worthy. 
In England if a soldier, sailor, or other dependent of the national service 
shall have remained a certain number of years, he is entitled to an honorable 
pension. Officers, authors, poets, and distinguished personages have received 
very flattering pensions in all countries, excepting perhaps, in America. If 
honor deserves support, merit should in the highest degree ; and the worthy 
laborer is the most meritorious of men. The sources of revenue should be 



THE WEAL CITY. 359 



the direct taxation of property and incomes ; and from these there will be 
more than enough to carry on the government. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXVII. 
Citizenship. — Three things should be necessary to citizenship : home, 
education, and character. The home should be in accordance with the ])]ans 
of the Ideal City ; character should consist of a clean life and honest toil ; 
education should embrace practical knowledge. We have sufficiently con- 
sidered the problem of home, and will give some attention to the require- 
ments of character and education. In a general way all persons are agreed 
that character is based on industry, sobriety and honesty. By industry is 
meant a willingness to work, unless one is in receipt of an assured income. 
Laziness is the cause of nearly all the poverty of the world, while ignorance 
covers the remaining ground. An indolent man at once must lose his citi- 
zenship. Honesty is the sum of one's daily life. Sobriety is temperance in 
its fullest sense. The devil finds a word for every good man and good deed, 
and his majesty has invented a vocabulary of epithets which the newspapers 
— his authorized agents — apply to the earnest workers of reform in this line. 
Still the heart goes on in every honest man and woman, fighting and hoping. 
I do not propose to argue the temperance question, but to state it and to pass 
it. It speaks for itself in every page of the history of all communities. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXVIIL 
The Temperance Problem — The good in food is composed of 
ANGS, or builders ; and only when the DEVS assail it, is it possible to 
start fermentation. This fermentation, if left to itself, becomes decay. 
The collection of DEVS in large armies, wherever decay has begvm, is an 
interesting excitement for the stomach and blood of a human being; but 
animals discard it. The spirit of evil is more intelligent in man than in 
the brute, and leads him to consort with the DEVS of fermentation; and all 
the while the devil himself smiles with glee. He plants in the minds of 
his worshippers the most powerful weapon ever wielded against sobriety, — 
the profound disgust of DEV-drinkers for those who talk of temperance. 
This disgust is offensively energetic. It drops from the lips of society 



360 HOWIE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

women, like oozing blood from the wounded doe; and all the more com- 
placently they set the wine and beer before their sons and daughters. The 
same sons, in alleys, doorways, or behind screens, pouring and passing the 
whiskey, sneer at and curse the so-called "cranks" who speak of temper- 
ance. All people who take pride in terming themselves decent, are smart 
in their expressions of disgust for those who are said to be "meddling with 
other people's business." Happily for the world of to-day, the blighting 
of the life of the drinker comes before his marriage, and less injury is done 
to others. The women have retaliated on the opposite sex; time was when 
they were beaten by drunken husbands, now the mothers and daughters of 
nearly all fashionable society tempt the men and boys with wine and liquors, 
and start many an otherwise hopeful life on the road to ruin. I do 
not speak altogether from report, but from personal knowledge in a large 
number of cases ; comparing which with reports from authentic cases I am 
satisfied that of our American mothers and daughters, there are two million 
of the fair sex who place intoxicating drinks before their sons and husbands,, 
and are filled with disgust for those who would save them the consequences 
of this crime against life. As all persons should relate the summary of 
their experience and knowledge in this most interesting line of investigation, 
I will state what I have actually seen in the lives of others. Of my most 
intimate acquaintances none have ever become drunkards. I have helped 
to save a considerable number from this fate, and always shall do whatever 
is in my power. There are men whose lives I have watched, as they came 
under the influence of the gilded saloon, and I have seen their children 
leave school for the shop in order to earn money to keep alive. I per- 
sonally know of two hundred and thirty-four young men who have lost 
their positions by reason of their habits of drink. I know a bright fellow 
of twenty years, who was working his way up in a banking house, with a 
certainty of a fine life position ; one day his employer saw him coming from 
a saloon, where thirst had tempted him to take a glass of beer; that night 
he was discharged ; to-day he is a house-painter with an uncertainty of work 
always harassing him. I know an employer of thirty men, who himself is 
a drinker of beer and whiskey; he discharged twelve of them because of 
their convivial habits. On being asked why he blamed others for what he 
himself was guilty of, he said : " My business requires men of clear heads 



I 



I 



THE IDEAL CITY. 361 



and regular habits. I have drank liquor enough to know the value of 
sobriety." A woman set wines, champagnes and beer before her son ; on 
being blamed for it, she answered angrily, "Oh, I am glad I am not a 
temperance crank." In four years after the son was hung for murder. 
Every priest whom I have known were heavy drinkers. One lived but a 
block away. One day I saw crape on his door. " Bright's disease," I said 
to a friend, and so it was. Another priest died two years later; I pre- 
dicted the cause. An editor of a prominent daily, a splendid gentleman in 
physical form, a heavy beer and liquor drinker, was stricken with paralysis. 
"Bright's disease," I said; and so it was. Of the business men of the 
great cities, the majority are cut off by their liquor habits. Old age is 
confined to the temperate. A few weeks ago a drunken father lay against 
the fence, half-drunk, surrounded by school children. He had a family and 
was reputed to be a gentle and moral man ; so that the children loved him. 
But in this beastly state, the result of a glass too much, he rolled out the 
most horrible filth, which the lads about him repeated. He blasphemed 
God in the presence of those to whom he had taught the precepts of 
Godliness when he was sober. The damage done by that half-hour of 
crime cannot be repaired in a life-time. I have seen men, carrying their 
earnings toward home at the close of the week, have to pass the gauntlet 
of the saloons ; and finally yield, enter, and spend all their money with the 
slums of the town , while wife and children suffered for food. The curse 
of the most horrible and torturing destruction shadows the life of him who 
sells and him or her who places liquor before another. I would rather be 
that man who has foully butchered his mother, wife, sister and babes, than 
the woman who places wine or beer before her family or guests. As for 
saloon keepers they and all their attaches are not only cursed in this world 
by every breath that is pure, but the miserable, reeking, slimy heart that 
beats the pulsations of a rotting body, will meet its fate in the clutches of 
the prince of hell and be torn inch by inch, fiber by fiber, tissue by tissue, 
into its eternal destruction. There is no excuse for any alcoholic beverage, 
from the weakest to the strongest. None shall appear in the Ideal City. 
He who would have citizenship must touch neither beer, wine, nor liquors; 
and this regulation should be a perquisite to the right of pension. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end ot Tome Ten. 



362 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

LESSON DCCXIX. 
Education. — The third requisite of citizenship is education. This 
should be compulsory. No child, under any circumstances, sick or well, 
should be exempt, unless the sickness is an absolute prevention. The poorer, 
meaner, more abject a child may be, the more reason why it should be com- 
pelled to receive an education. Less discretion should be given to parents. 
The interests of the state are at stake. The education should be continued 
as long as it is within the limits of practical knowledge, such as will make a 
man useful to himself and the community. The mind should be carried past 
that age where it may become the prey to sensational literature. The 
judgment should be matured in ordinary matters. Legislation and a system 
of surveillance will readily accomplish this reform. Not only the right to 
vote, but the right of citizenship should depend upon affirmative evidence, 
home, education and character. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXX. 

Support. — All men should be divided into workers and non-workers. 
Every worker who can produce evidence of his three qualifications of citi- 
zenship should, after passing the age of forty-five, and never before, under 
any circumstance, be placed on the pension roll of the government, to re- 
ceive adequate support for himself and wife as long as either may live. 
This support should be paid from the resources of taxation. The proposi- 
tion is a new one, but by no means a dream. The time will come when it 
will be realized. It is founded in the eternal laws of justice and equality. 
Its adoption is but a question of time. Let the people be educated to the 
idea, and in their hands rests the power by easy stages of legislation to 
effect a revolution in the existence of society and the relationship of the 
classes. To one who will cast off the yoke of cheap partisanship, and ac- 
cept their own status of life as the basis of a broader statesmanship, the task 
is easy, quick and effective. It is the duty of every good man and woman 
to talk, to preach, to encourage, to insist upon this as an early reform ; and 
that without reference to the building of an Ideal City. Let such a bless- 
ing come afterwards. Seek out one man or woman and secure a hearty 
pledge of loyalty to the support of this doctrine ; let each agree to make 
two converts to it ; and quietly persist until the times are ripe. In a year 



THE IDEAL CITY. 363 



you will have a thousand workers secured through the fruitage of your influ- 
ence. AV^hat a duty is yours ! God calls you to the work, and you are com- 
manded to perform active labor in the field of a moral revolution. Do not let 
the warning pass ! 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXI. 

Hours of Toil Every man and woman should arise at six o'clock, 

breakfast at seven and begin the duties of the day at eight. A full hour 
should be taken at noon. All pensioners should sleep in the middle of the 
day ; as age demands an extra hour ; this should follow lunch. Toil 
should cease at five o'clock, thus completing the third of the full day. 
Supper is to be at six, and the hour of retiring is to be at or soon after ten 
o'clock. I believe in the half-holiday on Saturday. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXIL 

The Sabbath I cannot recognize a man or woman as honest who 

does not become either a parishioner or member of a church. A parishioner 
is one who belongs to the congregation, and is in duty bound to attend regu- 
larly, and to aid in the maintenance of the church. A member is one who 
is a convert to the religious belief of the church. How any human being 
who draws the breath of life from the gift of God, can ignore his duty to 
the church, I cannot easily conceive. All who live in the Ideal City must 
belong to the church system which is a part of its existence. The church 
system recognizes every denomination that is not in conflict with the law of 
the land. Citizens must belong to some specific church as an attendant or 
member, or must belong to the general Church of AE, which is described in 
Tome Nine. On the Sabbath day all must worship ; and all who can, must 
attend church, as the most solemn duty of the week. All business and all 
pleasure seeking must cease. Those who cannot respect the Author of their 
bodies, should go to other places if they wish to desecrate the day of holi- 
ness. If holidays are needed, the Saturday half-day, and the full Ralston 
day, which comes on the fourth of every month, will amply provide the 
opportunity. 

l*ov Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



364 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 

LESSON DCCXXIII. 
The Church. — The church itself owes a duty to the community. It 
must not participate in the government of the people, but must be a con- 
tinual working force for human good. It must carry into every home a 
thoroughly practical religion. My idea of the duties of church and pastor 
is that the former owes a daily allegiance to every man, woman and child in 
the community ; and the pastor is a soldier charged with the command of an 
unceasing warfare against evil. To preach from the pulpit is his great pro- 
fessional dvity, and for this he must be equipped in mind, body and voice, 
but his command is war, war, WAR ! He is never victorious, but is to be 
always conquering. The church must be organized as strongly as a corpora- 
tion, and be the centre of a system of constant surveillance over the lives of 
the public. It should, in a religious way, know in how far the secular laws 
are obeyed or ignored. It cannot shut its eyes to any immorality or breech 
of faith. The execution of the civil and criminal laws is its duty to know 
and to compel by the moral force of its vigilance. But the most practical 
work of the church is its care for the poor, the distressed and the unfortu- 
nate. Its agents should be men and women, tried in their moral character, 
who should be paid salaries to keep a daily record and constant watch over 
all families. No human being should be unknown. The secular law should 
compel the church to do this, and the first duty of religion is to do it. There 
need be no denominational interference, under proper regulations. The 
church is not constituted to serve easy essays on ethics to members who are 
comfortably seated on soft cushions ; for attendance then is but a fashion. 
The care of unfortunate tramps, beggars, and sufferers should, by law, be 
forced upon church committees, who shall so administer their duties that the 
public are relieved from the annoyance ; and the public should, in turn, 
stand behind the church in all its great labors for general individual good. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXIY. 
Poverty. — There are two causes of poverty : laziness and ignorance. 
The former is well understood ; but one does not easily associate ignorance 
with poverty. The poor farmers of America are generally ignorant. The 
poor laborers, housed in hovels in great cities, are grossly ignorant. In the 
first place, a city is not the place for the poor. It means pestilence and death 



THE IDEAL CITY. 365 



in unusual proportions. The starting point in life of all poverty is in the 
crowded dwellings of towns and cities. There the young are neglected, and 
crime as well as the lowest degradation are bred and nourished. There is 
land enough for all, and to spare. The government in its generous offer of 
a section of one hundred and sixty acres to each settler, gave too much. Its 
purpose seemed to be to aid in commercial farming ; whereas, with twenty 
or forty acres, a man could raise enough to support himself and family in 
royal fashion. Even in states where rain is exclusively depended on, the 
irrigation system is the rational method, and could be easily arranged for 
twenty acres. Crops should always be assured, and drought should never be 
a factor in the result. Farming for home support, with all varieties of grain, 
vegetables and fruit, should be the chief object of the owner; then the 
vicissitudes of the market would not cause that eternal round of anxiety 
which makes the life of the farmer miserable, and the grain speculators in 
large cities, who rob the farmers, would be compelled to give higher prices 
or abandon their white-hearted enterprise. There is no excuse for poverty, 
as long as land is as plenty as it now is in the world over. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXV. 

Drunkenness. — The cause of drunkenness is the meat habit, notably 
the pork habit, and the old cheese habit. From meat to rottenness through 
putrefaction caused by DEVS is but a step, as may be proved by experi- 
ment, and all cheese is the home of bacteria. Like begets like ; the DEVS 
of meat and cheese eagerly associate with the DEVS of fermentation. The 
wily bar-tender knows this, and places red sausage, free pork-sausage, 
and horse-meat sausage, as well as a variety of all the meat mysteries, 
before his customers. The German, who drinks uncounted millions of 
DEVS in every mug of beer, also likes frankfurter sausages and lim- 
burger cheese, or similar microscopic worlds of densely packed inhab- 
itants. Like likes like. If these statements are in need of verification 
among the uneducated, it is a simple matter to obtain convincing 
proofs of their truth. Almost any large microscope will reveal the constit- 
uents that dwell in cheese, and the very largest will show the minute bacteria 
that exist in the freshest meat. The more alcohol a man drinks, the more 
love he has for old cheese and horse-meat sausages. If he will take the rank 



366 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME EIGHT. 



pus from an ulcerated sore and examine it under a microscope with the deli- 
cious mass of cheese that attracts and excites his appetite, he will find the 
pus and the cheese to be practically alike, and composed of DEVS that have 
an affinity for alcohol-DEVS. The love for fermentation in beer, wine or 
liquor, is not the love of the man himself, but of the dev-life within him. 
The cure is to abstain from all meat, old cheese, and stale food ; to drink 
distilled water, eat rolled wheat, and bathe the body morning and night, with 
a clean change of clothing. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXVI. 

Club-rooms. — Every club-room in existence, where men spend their 
evenings for social purposes, is a standing advertisement of the fact that 
their homes are not attractive to them. The furniture and carpets, pictures 
and general adornments may be all that the heart could wish ; but the wife^ 
the children, the associations of home, are not as attractive as the stories, the 
cards, the wine, the bleared faces of the roues who are club men by pro- 
fession. From an intimate knowledge of club-life, I am sure it is the 
destroyer of homes and happiness, the enemy of masculine morals, and the 
foe of religion. In its dry heat the hopes of the first love of the heart are 
parched, and sentiment is turned into ridicule. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXVII. 

The News. — The decency that once shone as a jewel out of the dust 
of human associations is no longer to be found. The scavenger is abroad 
with malice, and, because good people hate filth, they are afraid to begin the 
work of exterminating him. Not only are men and women afraid of the 
mud from the sewerage of the daily and weekly papers, but officials and even 
courts are corrupted by this fear. This trepidation is cowardice, and in the 
case of judges it is perjury; for they are sworn to administer justice 
impartially. There are few if any judges who are not awed by the prospect 
of attack from malignant papers. It is but a question of time when the 
masses of the people will rise and overthrow this, of all systems of license, 
the worst. Public endurance has tolerated it long enough. In our Ideal 
City, there shall be no newspapers; but any person may be licensed to pub- 



THE IDEAL CIIY. 367 



lish a weekly, or semi-weekly history of events, free from libel and 
sensationalism. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXVIII. 
The Plain People. — All persons of wealth have every right to make 
such use of their property as shall suit their desires. He who gets may 
spend. The more elaborately and luxuriously they live the more of their 
money is put in circulation. The changing styles and wanton waste of 
clothing merely help trade and manufactures, and would result to the good 
of the working classes were the giant combinations out of existence. There 
should be no envy for the rich. Society has many blessings. In as far as 
it tends to remove the boorishness from human bodies, to refine tastes, 
and create a desire for the aesthetic, it is not only an advantage but a 
necessity. There is, however, a class of people whom I wish I could induce 
to study themselves a little more, and add some of the charms of good taste 
and refined culture to what is already the best moral temperament of the 
age. They are the plain people. Plain in heart and mind, plain in home 
and dress, plain in social cordiality and cheer, plain in words and manners. 
On either side is a distinct class : on one, the upper social rank, so-called, 
charged full to the neck with false manners, selfishness and sickening fads ; 
on the other the beer-drinking hovel-dwellers. No matter what display of 
comfort the home may have, the beer-drinker is a hovel-dweller. But there 
are millions of plain people in America who belong to neither class ; they 
form the grand middle population. They are the wholesomeness of the 
nation, the good sense of the government, the honesty of the church, the 
yeomanry of the land. They win our battles in war and carry on every 
moral crusade in times of peace. Their homes dot hills and valleys, north 
and south, east and west, in towns, cities and country. When we step from 
the beer-scented hovel of the brute, or the sepulchred insincerity of the 
exclusive, it is a pleasure to enter the house of the plain. It is like coming 
from an arid desert into a meadow-land, flowing with cooling streams, 
fanned by the rocking branches of heaven-kissing trees, and sweet with 
flowers and grasses. Welcome is so plainly marked in the eye and so warm 
in the hand that it need not be uttered from the lips. The tidy rooms, and 
plant-hidden windows are cosy and comfortable ; the walls, in spite of their 



368 



KOMJE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME EIGHT. 



closeness, stretch away into the breadth of palace chambers ; the rug, rough- 
woven, is rich as tapestry ; and the common chairs are more inviting than 
the carved oak of more sumptuous life. May such homes and such people, 
whether rich or poor, dwell always within the limits of the Ideal City. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at ttie end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXIX. 
The Burden of Years. — In infancy, childhood and youth, our parents 
cared for us ; to respond is our duty and should be our pleasure. What- 
ever may be the infirmities of mind or body in the aging years, patient 
respect is a bounden duty. The mother cannot be too highly honored or the 
father too deeply venerated. There are no other words that can express the 
double duty; honor for the mother, veneration for the father, and the golden 
clasp of love binding the two always and evermore. Fortune smiles sweetly 
on the son or daughter who places father and mother uppermost in the heart, 
and puts God but one step above them in the scale of love. To prolong their 
lives, to add to their comforts, and to fill each day of advancing age with its 
fullest measure of joy, should be the study of every child. When the fond 
hearts shall beat no more, the words of kindness and the deeds of tender 
affection shall come back in lines of fire and blossoms of pearl, — beautiful 
reminders of unforgotten duties filling a brief page of life's history, and 
then closing forever. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



TOME NINE. 



GOOD. 



LESSON DCCXXX. 

Evidences. — Man is so much the creature of his inheritance, that it is 
difficult to determine his responsibility for the ignorance or knowledge that 
may make all the results of his life. It is no easy matter to accept the 
clearly understood proffers of good, when the inherited impulses are for 
evil ; and where the knowledge of good is quite lacking, the only natural 
course is the bad. Beneath the conflict of humanity are certain influences, 
springing from mysterious sources, and lending a motive to that superstruct- 
ure of life, called ethics. These influences are called evidences of the sup- 
ernatural. From them have been built all the religions of the world. It 
is the duty of every thinking man and woman to examine these evidences, 
and be led to their natural and philosophical conclusions. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXXI. 
The Human Heart. — That part of our humanity which we call the 
heart, is but the operation of the nervous system ; the organs of the material 
heart being in no way involved, except as the body itself is included in the 
control of the nerves. In the interlacing of all the departments of life, our 
complex body is dependent upon all its parts. There are three brains : the 
first brain is the cerebrum, and thinks for us ; the second brain is the cere- 
bellum, and directs the voluntary action of the muscles by feeding their 
movements with nervous life ; the third brain is the medulla, which directs 
the involuntary action of respiration, digestion and blood circulation. This 
wonderful little medulla is the central point of a system of nerves to which 
all automatic information is carried ; and from which all responses are made 
with amazing promptness. Its chief object of interest is the diaphragm, a 
large muscle called the floor of the lungs. In all normal conditions the 
diaphragm is fed by the medulla ; and our emotional as well as affectional con- 
dition depends upon the steady current of electrical fluid which this third 
brain sends to feed this giant muscle. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 
24 (369) 



370 n03TE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCXXXII. 

Seat of Life Imagine a large and powerful muscle extending across 

the body, just above the stomach and below the lungs, and attached to the 
abdominal walls from every side. It is a muscle, fed like all muscles from 
the nervous forces of the body ; its movements are dependent upon attached 
muscles which furnish a leverage for action. This diaphragm in sleep, 
when the system is quiet, rises and falls with a beautiful and unvarying 
rythm, as steady as the best regulated machine ; for all the while the fluids 
are fed smoothly from the nerves, and controlled in the medulla. In the 
morning on waking, a slight draft of air irritates the surface nerves that 
lead to the medulla ; and this irritation causes a sudden ^hilling or check to 
the flow of nerve-fluid that feeds the vitality of the diaphragm ; instead 
of the steady current, it is checked for an instant, and then the 
accumulated quantity is discharged like a clap of thunder; the diaphragm 
under this rush gives a great jump and expels an undue amount of air, 
called sneezing. The respiration depends upon the diaphragm, for with 
every descent it draws in air, and with every ascent it expels it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Teu. 

LESSON DCCXXXtll. 
The Spirit of Life. — The large muscle, known as the diaphragm, 
breathes for us in just such manner as our natures are. If we are tired, the 
vital flow, or nerve-fluid, is weak, and the diaphragm is short and slow ; if 
we are full of vigor and rested, it has a large and steady strength in its 
motion ; if we are faint, it almost ceases, sometimes being so quiet as to 
resemble death, and then we say the breath has stopped, for the spirit of 
iife has fled ; if we are excited, the diaphragm is overfed by nervous vitality 
from the medulla, and is quick and erratic in its action, after which comes the 
weariness, seeking to strike a balance ; if we are depressed, the breathing 
keeps company with the feeling. The diaphragm is distinctly the organ of 
breath ; and the ancients called the breath the spirit of life. Soul, spirit 
and breath are in many languages synonymous. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXXIV. 
Seat of the Emotions. — As may be easily proved over and over 
again in daily life, if discouragement comes to a person the medulla, or 



GOOD. 371 

third brain, feeds less vitality to the nerves that move the diaphragm; and 
the latter reduces its action to a minimum. In some cases of extreme sorrow 
the keenest observation fails to observe any breathing, and the diaphragm 
seems to have stopped, except in an occasional catch of the breath, followed 
by its escape as a sigh. Sorrow undoubtedly shows itself in the restrained 
breathing: in a most marked and unmistakable manner. If one is affected 
to tears the action must be first founded in this organ of breathing. The 
tears are excited from the tear-sacs near the eyes, but the nerves which lead 
to the medulla are first affected and the diaphragm sets up an erratic motion. 
Bring news of death to one and the intelligence will travel to this third 
brain, whose vital supply to the diaphragm will be stopped and resumed by 
intermittent action, causing the organ to breathe in exactly the same way; 
the air will be caught cpiickly by the fall of the diaphragm and let out at 
once. This is the process known as weeping, and its excitement to the 
nerves affects the glands in the nose and near the eyes, resulting in tears. 
All weeping, sobbing, crying, hysterics, convulsions, coughing, sneezing, 
hiccoughing, and laughter are various actions of the diaphragm playing 
tricks on the respiration ; they all need air, and furnish a sort of alphabet 
in the art of breathing; yet all depend primarily on the nerve-fluid which 
the medulla feeds to the dia])hragm and the manner of feeding it. Laughter 
is itself an interesting study. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXXV. 
Laughter. — Whatever the cause of happiness or pleased surprise the 
physiology consists merely of an overflow of nerve-fluid to the muscles of 
the diaphragm, compelling it to move more rapidly. As depression, dis- 
appointment and sorrow lessen its action, so a pleased feeling hurries it. 
To be happy is to breathe more air, to be unhappy is to breathe less. A 
sudden accumulation of pleasure sends more nervous-fluid to the diaphragm 
than it can use in any ordinary breathing ; so it jumps, hurries, vibrates and 
shakes, in its joyous action; the breath being thus intermittently jarred 
produces the emotion of laughter. Let the vocal cords be open and the 
-air will cause a soundless or aspirate laughter; when closed, they cause a 
falsetto laugh; when in a vocal position they produce ordinary laughing. 
There is no joy and no sorrow that does not at once go to the diaphragm and 



372 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE NINE. 

affect the breathing. And this is human. No animal is thus endowed 
excepting the dog. Joy vibrates his diaphragm and wags his tail by the 
action of the medulla ; sorrow depresses his organ of breath and shuts the 
tail between his legs. While all animals express their pleasure and gloom, 
the dog is the only one having an emotional constitution. For this reason 
he has often been a part of the religion of certain tribes, and notably of the 
Indians who buried him in the grave with his master in order that he might 
be with him in the happy hunting grounds of the spirit world. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXXVI. 
Origin of Emotions. — The physiology of our emotional nature is 
one distinct fact, and its origin is another. It is not difficult for the most 
inexperienced investigator to satisfy himself that the diaphragm is the 
direct cause of all the physical exhibitions of emotion, even to the action 
of the bowels. Many religions, as well as the Hebrew, locate the feelings 
in the bowels because they are often moved by any excess of joy or anxiety. 
Their movement is due to the physical operations of the diaphragm. 
Nearly all persons who are affected by worry are thus affected. Of course 
the diaphragm is the centre of the torso, and practically the seat of life of 
the entire body. We know that it is controlled by nerves, the same as 
other organs are controlled; that the medulla will carry on its necessary 
movements, even if the brain proper is unconscious ; but the mystery comes 
when we try to discover the connecting link between a piece of information, 
good or bad, and the medulla. We are told of joyous news ; the cerebrum 
receives it, and at once the medulla catches it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXXVII. 
Consciousness. — A step farther back may be taken. The medulla 
acts directly upon the breath, and the cerebrum acts directly upon the 
medulla. Indeed they are inseparable in the sense that the latter knows all 
that the former thinks; but the medulla is separable in that it will carry on 
all the functions of life without the aid or even consciousness of the cere- 
brum. Animals are not thus constituted except in degree, and the difference 
is practically a wall between the species. The solution of consciousness is 
in the Atoms, and its conferred intelligence; the aggregation of these Intel li- 



GOOD. 373 

gences makes the molecule with its fixed habits, the structures, the vegetable 
cells, the animal cells and the concentration of intelligence known as mind. 
Consciousness is never absent from matter. It thinks and knows at least 
passively, under all circumstances ; its harmony of interpretation is the brain 
of animal life. That such a being as man should exist is the most logical 
and most to be expected event arising from the combination of intelligences. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXXVIir. 
Man as we Find Him. — Heisinhimself the proof of his own diversity. 
How, then, can all men be equal before God, except in the enjoyment of 
general rights. It is rare that two men can be found who are equal even in 
simple endowments. Agreement is the most amazing tribute to civilization. 
Naturally all men should differ, for they are diverse by nature. No one can 
be blamed for self -attention, self-interest and selfishness when all minds run 
in varying and opposing channels. That people do agree, do yield to a com- 
mon purpose, is due to the law of protection or the advancement of self- 
interest, which could not be possible except under a united effort. The 
desire for gain is further evidence of difference and engenders disputes and 
quarrels; having probably caused nearly all the murders and general crimes 
of the world. In olden times, as well as at the present day, the holding of 
property must be considered as the natural interest around which varying 
desires converge. To have owned property or to have carried jewels or 
money was always at the peril of life unless the possessor was amply pro- 
tected. That robberies are less frequent to-day is due to a better system of 
protection, yet no man ventures to openly receive money and carry it, un- 
guarded, across fields or in dark streets at night. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXXXIX. 
The First Sin — The first crime of nature is theft. People and prop- 
erty are the world, the earth, government and existence. People desire 
property. Two may wish the same, or one may wish that which another 
owns. The conflict is inevitable. In the olden days might necessarily made 
right; and no man had a right to keep that which he was unable to protect. 
This was natural. If, in the open freedom of all living, a poor man accumu- 
lated little or much, some stronger or more alert fellow would surely get it 



374 B03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

away; either by cunning or wit or stealth, or assault, or murder. It makes 
no difference how it is taken, it is always theft to receive that which belongs 
to another. This is the first crime in every heart, in every life, in every age, 
and would be the first if the world were to be created anew. That it led to 
murder, personal injury and a general lack of safety, proved a serious ques- 
tion to all thoughtful men who wished some reasonable degree of protection 
in life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXL. 
Human Devices — The human brain is so constituted that it devises 
means to accomplish every end. I doubt if any necessity could exist which 
man's ingenuity would not overcome. True he has never established com- 
munication between this and other planets, or reached the poles of earth ; 
but these are not necessities. We know that bodily protection is the first 
great demand of all life ; we know that police guard every town and city to 
protect property and to prevent theft ; we know that government is organ- 
ized chiefiy for the purpose to determine the rights and enjoyments of owner- 
ship ; we know that jails are built to incarcerate petty thieves, robbers, 
house-breakers, highwaymen, train-desperadoes, forgers who seek gain, 
murderers who kill for money, and all classes of criminals whose efforts 
have been to obtain property unlawfully. But human endeavors are in 
vain. The fear of detection deters most law-breakers, but detection is 
generally impossible. In old English days, they hung a man for a petty 
theft as a terror to all offenders ; but because detection was rare, and should 
be deeply rewarded. In barbarous countries the thief is often tortured ; and 
this is done not as a fit punishment for the offence, but because detect iuu is 
difficult, and the warning should be severe. Yet soraelliing is lacking. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLT. 
Origin of Law. — A long way back in the dawn of human intelligence, 
men were sorely troubled over this problem. They were robbed of their 
sheep and cattle, and often driven from their homes. So they wandered 
over the face of the globe, and became, as history shows, a migratory people, 
seeking security and property. All wars of families, tribes or nations 
have relation to the possession of lands or values. But migration did not 



GOOD. 375 

settle the problem ; for they must wander together in bands for protection ; 
and when a new location is found, individual differences are sure to arise, 
Man is diverse, and cannot easily agree. This is seen in the communities or 
colonies sent out in modern times : they are disintegrated by local disputes 
and differences. The means must strike deeper than fear. True it is that 
detection and punishment are strongholds of menace against crime ; but 
there always come opportunities where there can be no possibility of being 
discovered. Your life and all lives have had many such opportunities. 

For Essays on this subject, sec " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLII. 

Dependence Man cannot always hold guard over his associates. 

He cannot be in the kitchen and see the ingredients that enter the cooking, 
or their composition before they were purchased ; so he may be poisoned 
without much fear of detection, even to-day ; and so easy was this in olden 
times, that the position of "taster" was a common and responsible one; if 
the food was dangerous the " taster " would be stricken first and his death 
would serve as notice to others. Man cannot examine the bolts, locks, 
screws and nails that make him secure at night from the house-breaker ; some 
servant may remove or weaken the screws by day, and aid the burglar by 
night. There are roads to be traveled that are not always protected, and 
risks are common everywhere. This was so in a marked degree in ancient 
times, for the patriarch lay down to sleep without doors or bolts or guards. 
From the beginning of the race all men have been more or less dependent 
upon the mercy of others. Yet this dependence compelled them to face the 
necessity by means of greater subtlety ; and they were equal to it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLIII. 

Motive If you were to go to the city of Naples in Italy you would 

at once learn the moral degradation of the people from the fact that num- 
berless beggars are allowed by law to ply their avocation. Let us leave 
them and seek the average face of the better classes. We select a fellow, and ask 
him at night to show us the city and the character of the people, at the same 
time giving him ample compensation from a large bag of gold, which he 
knows that we are carrying about. After escaping all the dangers of such 



376 HOBIE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

a visit in such a Sodom, we ask him to spend the night with us and to sleep 
in the same room as a guard against robbers. He is a stranger to us, and we 
to him. Out of one hundred thousand such men with such opportunities, 
how many do you think would refuse to help themselves to our gold and 
escape while we slept soundly ? If one, what one, and how can he be known 
in advance? If any man will, under circumstances where detection is alto- 
gether impossible, refuse to take gold and escape, what motive would restrain 
him ? There is but one, and the keenness of human intellect long ages ago 
discovered that motive. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLIV. 
Mystery. — To the most intelligent being, life is a profound and unsolv- 
able mystery. To the less thoughtful and less investigating people of earlier 
ages, the mystery was so deep that any gleam in the dark was called a ray of 
light. In such circumstances it was not only an easy matter but a natural 
consequence that the keener men should separate themselves from the less 
shrewd. As no two are alike, and as all minds are diverse in their intelli- 
gence, even when all are low in the scale of education, it must follow that 
some are brighter and clearer than others. These, if other things were 
equal, would soon acquire superior estates and a greater share of the prop- 
erty to be had ; they would rise in caste and seek to maintain their position 
by affiliation with others of the same motive and rank. Having done this, 
they would soon become the advisers of others, less fortunate ; would excite 
more or less respect through awe, and would be listened to. This evolution 
of mental supremacy over others leads to the general control of the body 
politic. Such unfolding of social relations is not a theory, but a living fact 
stamped on every page of history, in every age, and among every people. 
It is the most important fact of our present lives. And neither to-day is the 
mystery that dwells in lesser minds any the weaker because the general average 
of intelligence is greater. More of the old-time obscurities have been cleared 
away, but the spirit of superstition is just as strong. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLV. 

Advantage Minds are always superior by reason of their astuteness. 

The keen brain sees its advantage in some occurrence, behind which no 



GOOD. 377 

investigator can go to find the cause. There is now known to scientists a 
familiar example of this in bread, which has become infected with bacteria. 
The dough set aside in bake-shops over night to raise has not infrequently 
been found in the morning resplendent with colors which fairly rivalled 
those of the rising sun. There is a species of bacteria in every good 
collection, and veritable Nestor among the forms known to man, which 
has a curious ecclesiastical history. Among all the innumerable natural 
phenomena which, by their striking character, infrequent occurrence, and 
lack of apparent cause, were in early times relegated to the domain of the 
supernatural, none perhaps was more strange and uncanny than the sudden 
appearance on the moist surfaces of articles of food of little bright-red shiny 
droplets, which, gradually spreading, at length formed large shiny, deep, 
rich-red masses, looking very much like drops, or masses, or clots of blood. 
The story is long and tragic of the dire calamities, unmentionable crimes, 
and swift retributions which these strange appearances of blood were 
supposed to foreshadow. This miracle of the bleeding Host has appeared 
again and again in the hands of the priestly defenders of the faith as a 
most potent evidence of divine intervention with the affairs of men. The 
consecrated wafer placed over night in the moist and bacteria-laden air of 
the church edifice would in the morning be found besprinkled with bright 
red drops. What could it be but blood? No human hand could have come 
near the place, and so what else could be believed but that it was from the 
hand of God ? It was one of those early miracles in which both priest and 
laymen could alike share in believing with perfect honesty. The divine 
finger pointed, but to what, it was the office of the priest to say. How 
many lives were sacrificed and homes destroyed through that most honest 
of ecclesiastical delusions, the miracle of the bleeding Host, it were useless 
now even to conjecture. To-day we cultivate in our tubes the tiny bacteria 
which, growing in masses, made the drops of blood, and the last elements 
of romance and tragedy seem to disappear from the story as we name 
them — Bacillus prodigiosus. 

For Essays on this subject, see '' Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLVI. 
The Supernatural — We thus find in the study of humanity, — first 
the universal desire for property which causes theft ; second the same 



378 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE NINE. 

desire for property which devises means to secure protection against theft; 
third the futility of punishment to provide such protection; and fourth the 
use of the supernatural as the last resort. That keen men would see the 
eflEect on the minds of others which supernatural references must have, is 
perfectly apparent; that they would follow the advantage even to estab- 
lishing a code of spiritual laws is not merely reasonable but absolutely 
certain. History tells us that every phenomenon in nature and every 
unexplained fact in ordinary life was made the basis of some spiritual 
warning to the guilty. The past is full of such experiences, and all 
ecclesiastical books not only admit but record the abounding evidences of 
these attempts to produce goodness by awe, and to use every occurence as 
evidence of the dreadful visitation of vengeance from the hidden powers. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLYII. 
The One Man. — The process is simple, short and effective. The 
parents of one generation would easily listen to the counsels of one man in 
their midst; whether he spoke from his own claims, or assumed to be author- 
ized by a higher power. There is always one man at the beginning or head 
of every moral movement ; his followers are his believers ; and there has 
been no age in either dark or bright history when one man, teaching or 
representing a moral idea, could not gain attention, gather together a band 
of followers, and establish a religion, a sect, or a church. That this is so 
speaks of the necessity of morality as an inculcated force, and of the recog- 
nition of this necessity by the masses who wish protection from the conse- 
quences of others' immorality. The darker the age the greater the power of 
one man in the development of religion ; but the time will never come when 
this power will be denied any man or woman. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX DCCXLVIII. 
Attachments — I do not believe that the spontaneity with which a 
religion arises is due to the religious temperament of man in his better 
nature ; nor do I believe that it is forced into him by the desire for safety 
to his body, for life is the highest stake of such a fear, and means little to 
most people of the great world. There is something else. No doubt the 
love of gain and the steps which by it are made necessary, even to the incul- 



GOOD. 379 

eating of supernatural fear, have been the direct causes of moral and religious 
codes ; but there is something else. When night comes and the curtains of 
the skj are drawn tightly around every home, the air seems awake with 
other sounds than those which the ear is accustomed to listen to by day ; the 
imagination makes sport of the frail and never reliable nervous system ; and 
a strong desire for friendships, associations and protection brings people 
under one roof. Families remain together. The heart forms attachments 
for familiar places and faces, and love is developed. All life is more or 
less subject to the sway of its attachments. Sheep and cattle, horses, dogs, 
and all species of the animal kingdom are attracted to their own kind, and 
even to their enemies. A dog and a cat, thrown constantly together from 
early life, will remain friends ; a sheep and a cow, or a sheep and a dog, or 
a sheep and a bull will form such attachments; and travellers have written of 
some very unusual associations of which I know nothing. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXLIX. 
Grief. — That death is intended for man has been assumed from the 
fact that the race has furnished no example of unlimited longevity. All 
who live to-day expect to die, and are ignorant of the mode of procedure 
which will follow the act of dying. If material evidence of a conclusive 
nature had been given them of the future they would live quite differently 
in this world. If the next abode were far up in the sky and yet within 
sight ; if its portals, its occupations, its inhabitants, were all in view ; if the 
voice of the Supreme Ruler could be heard, not by one, nor by a few, nor 
by a sect or a select people, but by the great broad masses of humanity ; if 
what awaits us in the world to come were so plainly set forth that the most 
humble mind could not mistake it ; then men and women would all live 
accordingly and adjust their conduct to the known facts. As it is, there is 
no knowledge except through faith, and faith is sometimes uncertain, as 
when two thoroughly sincere clergymen of absolute honesty are both pray- 
ing at the same time, one for rain and the other for dry weather. There is 
one bond that brings all to a level, and it is Grief. To this add the mystery 
of creation, the mystery of our being, the certainty of death and the uncer- 
tainty of the hereafter, and the sorrow of parting is intensified. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



380 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCL. 
Man and Animals. — A human being is an animal to which an emo- 
tional nature and a contemplative mind have been added. If he is destined 
to become immortal, it is through these two channels that we must catch 
glimpses of his immortality ; and by their aid we must acquire a knowledge 
of the natural foundations of religion. We have seen that the mind of 
superior man has been able to sway and lead the emotions of his followers ; 
we have examined his motives to do this, and the emotional faculties that 
are thus affected. Emotion has been mistaken for repentance, and religious 
sorrow. It is but the natural function of the respiratory organ, the dia- 
phragm ; but still it is an attribute of humanity, not found in its real nature 
in any animal. Thus man may be said to be an emotional animal, capable 
of contemplative thinking. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLI. 
Broken Ties. — When some loved form is lowered into the grave, the 
contemplative mind asks. When next shall we meet ? When, amid the grati- 
fying pleasures of a successful life the hand of death is heard knocking at 
the door, be its rapping ever so gentle, the contemplative mind asks. 
Who departs hence ? The religion of the church, and the atheism of society 
clasp hands over the coffin of mutual love. There all look forward to the 
same goal. Under such circumstances, in such lives as we live, with such 
natures as we have, fearing dangers on every hand, is it a wonder that an 
individual who claims to have come nearer the light of truth than his fellow- 
men, is able to attract a following, especially when his doctrines teach others 
that sin is wrong, even if it is never detected by human eyes. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLI I. 
Inherent Good. — It would well repay any student of philosophy to 
examine the question, how much inherent good there is in the human heart. 
It is possible to develop a perfect code of morals and a religion of the 
highest type from the mere desire to educate men to be good in order 
that inward fear might prevent crime. I know of irreligious mothers who 
make their children believe that if they tell a lie some terrible monster 
will devour them ; but if they always tell the truth some fairy will bless 



GOOD. 381 

them. Between the fear of being devoured and the pleasure of being 
blessed the children are not left a large margin of choice. Had the fairy 
part been omitted the other consideration was sufficient to inspire truth- 
telling, but the offer of the blessing of itself would hardly have been strong 
enough to hold back the lie. The threat and the promise are the two chief 
elements in all religions, and there is not one on the face of the globe which 
is constructed on any other basis. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLIII. 
Motives. — No theologian believes in a religion without the threat; the 
very word religion itself is law, and takes its meaning from the Greek, to 
have a care. Wherever found, whether among the barbarous or the civil- 
ized, religion is a collection of the laws of conduct and penalties for disobe- 
dience. It is an effort to suppress inherent evil ; all admit that ; the only 
question is, what is the real motive, not in accepting or administering the 
laws, but in originating them ? Did the first great leader of every tribe or 
nation really desire to draw men to a happy immortality ? or did he desire 
to make the world better for the good it would do here? or did he wish to 
protect himself and others by inspiring criminals with a supernatural fear ? 
or did he seek to gain power for himself by playing upon the credulity of 
others in matters that always obtain a following ? That these motives have 
existed, and do exist to-day, no one can doubt. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLiy. 
The Three Schemes. — He that is good because he honestly believes 
he will be punished in a never ending or, at least, most horrible manner, is 
not good for the love of it. The fear always stands forth like a wall 
between his wish and his act, and force prevails over his moral nature. He 
that is good because he is promised a reward, be it happiness, satisfaction, 
peace of mind, or a glorious hereafter, is good from selfish motives, and not 
from spontaneity. It is possible to divide the motives of morality into three 
great schemes : either that goodness is insjiired by fear of punishment, or by 
promise of happiness as a reward, or by its own immediate satisfaction 
prompted by that sense of justice which honest conduct alone can generate. 
Let a man test his nature by committing sin ; he will feel an immediate 



382 SOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE NINE. 

unrest that dwells over him like a burden. Let him hunt for equivalents 
for moral conduct in the shape of promised rewards, and the transaction 
will savour of the nature of exchange or bargain and sale. But let him be 
ruled by the simple dictates of absolute honesty, and he will do good and be 
good for the immediate pleasure which he feels. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLV. 
Genuineness. — I am delving in the substratum of the human heart. 
I find there certain laws, as fixed as eternity, and I care not how they strike, 
or whom or where. The time is come when the motives of goodness, the 
basis of morality, and the truth of conscience should be unveiled. There 
are thousands of creeds in the world, and only one in life. There are relig- 
ions as diverse and varied as man, and only one law of God to humanity. 
Men are scheming and planning to remodel the tenets of faith, to add here 
and subtract there, to twist the reason to one set of ideas, and relax its 
tension on another strain, all to attract to themselves some power over a 
handful of believers. And all their labor concentrates on the fear of pun- 
ishment for sin, and the reward of happiness for holiness. Hearts thus won 
are never held. "Why do you live a holy life?" asks one. "Because, if I 
do not, my soul will be eternally punished." — " Why are you holy ?" 
" Because I shall merit eternal happiness," — The third says : " Because it 
is right," and the third is genuinely good. I would not trust either of the 
others under temptation ; they are not on the right road to Heaven. Nor do 
I believe the third would ever backslide ; for when a person gets far enough 
along in his fight with Satan to realize that goodness is inspired by itself, 
the devil leaves him once and for all. What this moral condition is, we 
shall endeavor to learn. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLVI. 
Spurious Religion. — If any religion states as a matter of fact that 
punishment after death follows a life of sin, it records what is necessarily 
true ; but if its incentive to morality is the threat of punishment, the devotee 
of such a religion will never succeed in averting his fate. There must be a 
higher standard. It is a noteworthy fact that the lower down in the scale of 
human degradation a nation may be, the more does its religion abound in 



GOOD. 383 

punishments, horrors and fearful omens ; while its promised rewards are 
gilded with hues of far greater resplendence. Coming up the scale of civil- 
ization step by stej) we approach the third inducement, goodness for the 
sake of goodness, and hajipiness is stated as a fact, rather than as a reward, 
while punishment is a logical consequence rather than a foreboding threat. 

For Essays on this subject, sec " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLVII. 
Miracles. — Leaving the quality of religion for the present, let us dis- 
pose of the motives that have given every nation and tribe some form of 
worship. From evidence easily within control of every body, it is apparent 
that men have become religious leaders merely for the sake of power. This 
is true to-day in a marvellous number of instances, great and small. It is 
true as far back as history runs. Temporal power has been hard to attain ; 
but all keen minded men, failing to impress their fellow- beings in civil or 
military transactions, have assumed to teach them the supernatural, have 
claimed authority from God ; and, in order to impress the people, these 
leaders have resorted to claims of miracles done apart from observation, or 
agreed to by coadjutors, or made through trickery in open sight. Of this 
there is not the slightest doubt. All nations, all history, all religious 
accounts are agreed that such is the case. Nor is it unnatural. What could 
be more logical than the desire for power, and the adoption of measures to 
acquire that power? Without pronouncing all miracles to be frauds, I 
simply say that theologians admit that all frauds resort to claims of miracles. 
They at once invest the man with authority, and who can be accredited with 
greater authority than he who offers proof in the shape of super-earthly 
deeds. An astronomer, able to predict the eclipse of the sun at a given 
hour and day, proclaims himself the messenger of Divinity, in proof of 
which he calls upon the j^owers to hide the face of the sun, — and it is done. 
He who reads history knows that not only this but numberless other so-called 
miracles have been performed and great power over men thereby achieved. 
The rich pagan countries to-day are infested by such frauds, whose tricks are 
open to the keen-eyed ; and during all the long centuries since the birth of 
Christianity, its own great leaders and teachers have confessedly yielded to 
the same temptation. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



384 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCLVIII. 
How Man Came. — We have already found abundant motives for the 
invention of religion by spurious teachers. Whenever such a person 
appeared and pretended to be the agent of the Divine Being, he would at 
once be assailed with questions which we all would like to have answered : 
the solution of the mysteries that surround us. Foremost among all, is the 
inquiry, How came man upon the earth? So all religions answer the great 
problem ; some minutely, and some vaguely ; but none have failed to meet 
the inquiry. As surely as the parent must bring forth' a child before parent- 
age exists, so surely must every religious leader in the dawn of the religion 
answer the question. How came man upon the earth ? Herein all religions 
agree, though the details of the account may vary as widely as the poles; 
and each tribe have its fixed belief in its own account. Even if the first 
leader should be honest, he would not answer the question, but would sug- 
gest possibilities ; and these would be repeated as facts, and go down into 
tradition. It is thus very easy to originate a fixed account, without any 
actual moral turpitude. And nothing is easier than to originate a complete 
religion, based, of course, upon the general fundamentals of all religion. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLIX. 
•Easy Origin of Religion. — In 1811 a man by the name of Solomon 
Spaulding wrote a romance, the central figure of which was a character 
named Mormon. Of this fact, there is absolutely no doubt whatever. It 
was an account or record of certain ancient people in America, abridged by 
an assumed prophet Mormon, said to have been discovered by Joseph Smith, 
at Cumorah in Western New York, and translated by him, who thereupon 
founded the Mormon Church in 1830. The fact that the book was a mere 
novel, of the romantic order, has had nothing to do with its acceptance as 
an inspired work ; and so deeply implanted is the belief that it is the word 
of God that no Mormon, man or woman could be shaken in their faith in it ; 
for generations have been reared in the sunlight of its sacred truths; mothers 
have repeated it to children clinging to their knees and lisping the prayers 
it teaches ; grandmothers and fathers, bowed in reverent age, have tottered 
to the verge of the grave, pressing the volume to their hearts and, with 
upturned faces, poured all their faith Heavenward, dying in perfect peace,. 



GOOD. 386 

with no shadow of doubt as to the origin of the book. Now let us suppose 
that this Book of Mormon, which is the most open fraud of modern religion, 
had appeared six thousand years ago as the only moral guide of the early 
world ; where would it be to-day ? Its sixty centuries would have been 
freighted with struggles, disputes, persecutions, arrogant faiths and all 
manner of gloomy fears, driving men to the acceptance of the book ; and 
it would have displaced all opposing works; it would have been the 
creed of all ages ; its supporters would have been the grandest men of all 
ranks and professions; and no person could be saved who did not believe in 
it. Or, supposing that, just before the dawn of the Christian era, when 
religion had rotted in men's hearts and the world was ripe for any change, 
the Book of Mormon had appeared. Would we not all be Mormons? 
You cannot despise or disparage the Mormons of Utah. They are not 
thoughtless or weak-minded ; nor are they the scrubby set of folks their 
enemies have called them. I know many of them personally. They are 
honest, industrious, God-serving and God-fearing. In manners and morals, 
in heart and hand, they are clean and pure ; and an acquaintance with them 
will only add to one's good opinion of humanity. There are among them a 
very large proportion of well-educated, brainy thinkers, who will compare 
favorably with the world's best men and women. Yet, without exception, 
they believe in the Book of Mormon, as a work inspired from God ; and so 
thoroughly do they belive in its sacred origin that no fact could change 
them ; nor could any evidence find a channel of entrance into their minds. 
Yet I know that the Book is a pure concoction of falsehoods, invented 
by the creative ingenuity of an ordinary man, who never intended to lend 
his fancy to such a stupendous result. Now let the centuries pass away, 
and all evidence of Spaulding be buried out of sight and reach ; would not 
the book be so sacred that a breath of doubt would be deemed heresy, 
especially if the accessions to the church had become as numerous as those 
which greeted the purity of Wesleyism. What lesson is taught by this 
modern giant? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLX. 
The Heart's Response. — The fact which I desire to impress is the 
€ase with which any religion may be originated. I do not hold up the 
25 



386 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

growth of the Mormon church as evidence that the Christian religion may- 
have arisen from a similar pretence, or that the Hebrew Church may have 
been the outgrowth of schemes started by pretenders ; but I add it to the 
evidence already overwhelming of man's ready response to religious 
teachings. It is not the nature of Mormonism that draws people to it, 
but humanity's religious response that makes Mormonism possible. It is 
not the skill of the miracle-maker that induces a large band of followers to 
set up a church; but the response of mankind to tenders of instruction on 
Divine themes. The fact that fraud, pretence, invention and trickery can 
lay the foundation of a time-abiding religion, is paramount evidence of 
man's willing nature to be led into moral restraint for self-good. No other 
phase of life stands out in such bold relief as this, and it tells the story 
which the many lessons of this Philosophy have emphasized, — that man is 
two-fold, good and bad : the good struggling to come up through the bad 
and to shine above it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXI. 

The Bible. — A work of this kind is purely secular ; and, from the 
secular side of ethics, it is expected to deal with the problems of the Bible's 
origin, and the Christian religion. In a later and specific volume I shall 
state reasons and evidences which I have collected from personal research, 
showing that there can be no doubt as to the historical authenticity of the 
Old and New Testaments. There are scholars who, no doubt, have devoted 
more years to theology than I have ; but with equal opportunities at my 
control, with a more intense interest to know the truth, with a willingness 
to sift all true and false testimony on both sides, and a cool resignation to 
facts, I have delved in many usual as well as in many unexpected quarters, 
and I am sure of my ground when I declare that the New Testament is, in 
its four gospels and in Revelation, an infallible book of inspiration ; while 
the Old Testament is, what it purports to be, a religious history of the Jews. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXIL 

Inspiration. — Attempts have been made, time without end, to bolster 
up the faith of men in the Bible by declaring it to be the inspired word of 



GOOD. 387 

God ; and the question of belief in this inspiration has and is separating 
many a brother from his co-worker in the church. If men will but remem- 
ber that the stability of religion is not in its teaching, but in the response of 
the human heart to religious proffers, all schism and bitterness would at 
once cease. It is an attack on the inherent goodness that flourishes in the 
presence of all moral suggestion, to question the inspiration of the Bible. 
It is not material to the issue. Suppose the entire work to be of fraudulent 
origin, yet to contain the noblest moral code of all the ages. Regardless of 
its origin, its contents are emanations from natural goodness.,, 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXIII. 

Satan and the Bible. — The Bible is full to the brim of that very 
morality which awakens in men's hearts a response to religious teachings. 
Now we know well enough that if its doctrines are adopted the result must 
be eternal life, and we know that Satan will be overthrown in our hearts.. In 
other words the Bible is the open and relentless enemy of the devil. Do 
you imagine that Satan, who seeks conquest, not self-destruction, was foolish 
enough to originate a system which must aim at his own overthrow ? He 
would not instigate a work like the Bible, for he could not. His great 
mouthpiece is the newspaper. If wicked men, for the purpose of power, 
assume to be religious teachers and do in fact promulgate moral doctrines in 
order to win the confidence of righteous people, such morality is the inherent 
goodness that dwells in the meanest mortals in some degree at least, and 
often seeks to escape from its surroundings, while their false life is the wick- 
edness that remains. The lowest criminal is capable of parting with some 
goodness. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXIV. 

Theology. — The term theology is sometimes applied to objective relig- 
ion. Whatever its meaning is, it is at fault for having existence. I include 
in theology all discussion of authors, authorities and origins ; I include in 
religion all experience and discussion of man's moral response to suggestions 
of goodness, from whatever source they may come. Theology has undone 
a major part of all the good that religion has su(!ceeded in accomplishing, 



388 H03IE COURSE IK PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 



and the world is in that moral status when it must dispense with either the- 
ology or religion. That which is good can never die, but it may lie crushed 
to earth unable to rise except after long lapses of life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXV. 
Objective Religion. — The present lessons are so important that I shall 
take unusual pains to be understood, before proceeding too deeply with them. 
Religion is sometimes termed objective and subjective ; the former referring 
to the consideration of God's relation to us, and the latter being the expe- 
rience in our own lives and hearts of our relations to God. I do not believe 
there is in fact any such thing as objective religion, for it is not religion to 
discuss and dispute and doubt and differ in creeds. All this haggling I call 
theology, or the devil's attempt to dethrone goodness as the supreme ruler of 
the heart. The only religion is subjective, or that which is felt, known and 
experienced. There can be no harm in discussing religion, for religion is 
moral harmony, and theology is moral discord. Religion is the effort of 
inherent good to come out of its human sepulchre ; theology is the effort of 
evil to shut in this sweet life of religion. As a test of the vast difference 
between the discussions of theology and religion, I have many times precip- 
itated these among all classes of believers, with a steady and unvarying uni- 
formity of result : discussions of religion always led to harmony and gentle 
loving-kindness ; discussions of theology always led to bitterness, ill-feeling, 
and the hot flush of anger. No two persons agree as to the questions raised 
by theology ; all agree on every phase of religion. Try this problem, and 
bear in mind that the successful clergyman is he who is able to avoid all the- 
ology and cling only to religion. I assert again, and will abundantly prove, 
that theology is the cloak of the devil, under which he disseminates church 
division, and undertakes to grind to powder the great bulwarks of life. 
What good is there anywhere with which Satan has not formed a copartner- 
ship ? Under the cloak of charity how many criminals have sought public 
confidence. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXVI. 
Creeds. — Let us see how terrible has been the work of theology since 



GOOD. 389 

the dawn of Christianity ! The great broad church is supposed to represent 
peace ; or, at least, if peace cannot be found in the sacred domicile of the 
church, where shall we look to find it? Nowhere. Yet theology has, as its 
first great blow against the peace of the world, divided all church-goers into 
two great classes : those who believe in the Old Testament to the exclusion 
of the New, and those who believe in the New, with or without the Old. 
The Hebrews, the Jews, the Old Testament adherents by the millions, reject 
the divinity of Christ, or reject New Testament history altogether ; while 
millions of others are exactly opposed to this doctrine of rejection. Now 
both cannot be right, and to declare that either side is wrong will precipitate 
discord. This is theology, and the work of the devil. Religion tells us 
that the inherent goodness of man responds to every moral teaching of the 
Old and New Testaments, no matter how it came to be written. Church- 
members who rest their soul's salvation on theology are lacking in religion, 
and will never see God. Any man or woman who dares to say that the Old 
Testament is the only authority, or the New Testament is the only authority, 
or who seeks safety in correctness of creed, is an unforgiven sinner. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rioles for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXVII. 
History of Creeds. — Jews and Gentiles are theologians; yet both 
classes are holy and sanctified in proportion as they lessen the difference 
betw^een the Jews and Gentiles in their minds and hearts ; nor can they come 
into perfect peace with God until, in their souls, there are no Jews and Gen- 
tiles. Now again, taking the Christians as the great representative body of 
New Testament followers, we find them arrayed in certain grand divisions : 
there is the Apostle's Creed, a summary of the Christian faith; the Athana- 
sian Creed, which is still read in the church of England ; the Nicene Creed, 
which is held as authority in the Roman and Greek churches, and in many 
Protestant churches; these three being the general grand creeds. Then 
there is the Creed of Chalcedon ; the Creed of the Council of Trent ; the 
Russian Creed ; the Lutheran Creed and its various divisions, such as the 
Augsburg Confession, the Articles of Schmalcald, the Catechisms of Luther, 
the Confession of Lower Saxony, the Suabian-Saxon formula, the Torgau 
formula, and the formula concordiaj ; the Calvinistic Confessions of Bale ; 



390 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 



the Tetrapolitan Confession ; that of the Helvetic churches ; the Palatine 
Catechism ; the Expositio Simplex ; the Formula Consensus ; the Gallican 
Confession ; the Belgic Confession; the Scottish Confession of 1560; and the 
great Westminster Confession, and Catechisms. These are the leading creeds 
of Christianity ; but represent only the grand-divisions of theological war. 
The denominations are smaller fragments of Christianity. But take a glance 
at the fearful scheme of the creeds of the grand-divisions, and tell me how 
much religion there is in any one of them, or in the hearts that promulgate 
or seek to keep them alive. Imagine a mother, laying her babe to rest in 
the lap of earth and seeking comfort from the great Source of all sympathy; 
and not knowing by what Articles of faith she should approach her Father. 
The wrath of God rests on the head that propagates the theology of Creeds, — 
for the heart knows nothing of the kind. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXVIII. 
Denominations. — Theology stalks like a dry spectre amid the dead 
leaves of denominational churches; and religion lies smothered in the heart's 
yearnings. The Roman Catholic has its fixed belief, as unchanging as 
the polar star ; and its creed is war against the Protestants ; yet both 
originate from the same Bible and Testament. It has the strongest church 
government on earth ; yet, while it has less internal dissension than any of 
the Protestants, is continually involved in quarrels over theology. On the 
other hand is the great Protestant division of Christianity with its hundreds 
of denominations ; and among them where you find the least creed you will 
see the most religion. Theology and religion are as diametrically opposite 
as Satan and God. Creeds are the holiest words of sin, born of disputant 
minds, and never knowing, or known by the heart. The Baptists have so 
many factions, at serious war with each other, that no one knows to-day 
what is meant by the denomination ; they offer the most conclusive arguments 
supported by impregnable facts to sustain their claims of immersion and 
communion, while opposing denominations offer on the other hand equally 
conclusive arguments sustained by equally impregnable facts, to prove that 
the Baptists are altogether and hopelessly in error. I have carefully read and 
studied the opposing arguments, and find both sides perfect in logic and in data. 



GOOD. 391 

and unassailable in their conclusions ; yet they prove each other to be wrong, 
by evidence on each side so convincing that not the slightest doubt exists as 
to the result. Arrayed against each other are the ablest men of thorough 
honesty, and the most splendid scholarship. Gladstone, the great commoner 
of England, estimates about four hundred Protestant denominations, and 
more coming every year. Theology is grinding religion to powder. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj-s," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXIX. 
The Grinding — What is this grinding all about? There is no 
religion in it ; nothing but disputes as to what God said and did not say, 
what He meant and did not mean, what He wrote and did not write, what 
men were inspired and what were not, and all about authors, authorities 
and origins. This grinding has made the church one broad battle field 
of blood and hellish war. It was theology that burned religious men 
at the stake ; it was theology that plunged Europe seventy-six times 
into the horrors of war; it was theology that massacred the good people 
of the cities or immured them in dungeons to starve and perish ; it was 
theology that shone in the blood-shot eyes of that long array of repre- 
sentative churchmen who devised instrimients of torture wherewith con- 
fessions, recantings, creeds, articles of faith and miserable prayers were 
wrenched from the lips of earth's fairest humanity; it was always theology 
on the one side, dressed in the garb of pretence and clothed with authority 
to commit, in the name of the church, crimes that would put to the blush 
the most devilish butchery of the darkest barbarism of Africa ; while on 
the other side were patient goodness and honest seekers after religion. 
Look to your creeds, and you will find not one, coming to you from the 
past, that is not stained with the innocent blood of countless victims, and 
tainted with the blasphemy and perjury of hypocrites whose worthless souls 
long since perished in the flames they kindled on earth. There is no religion 
in theology. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXX. 
Disbelief. — When I hear a man ask, Do you believe that Moses wrote 
the Pentateuch, or do you believe in the account of such a Book of the 



392 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

Bible, I at once set that man down as a theologian, and not as a follower 
of religion; nor can a soul be saved that desires to have such queries 
disputed or discussed or cleared up. One man says, I do not have that 
peace of mind which I would be sure to have if some learned doctor 
of theology would only tell me how to answer the attacks which I hear 
made on the Bible. The attacks made on the Bible are no concern of 
yours ; the grand Book speaks for itself and can take care of itself. 
Whatever it is, however it came to be as it is, it is stronger than any 
argument which you or the greatest minds can devise in its favor. 
Remember this, that no attacks were ever made on religion. The atheist, 
the infidel assails only the defences of theology; and thus hell wars against 
itself. The Bible is the great vehicle of the best moral system ever devised, 
and it is human in all its pages. It is the mirror of life reflecting the 
human heart from all sides. It is desecration to defend that which is 
beyond assault; and theology to-day, full as it is of shambling excuses for 
the so-called discrepancies of the Book, is but a puff of conceit. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Eules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXI. 
The Dark Religion. — I have laid these facts before many thoughtful 
clergymen; I have told them that theology is grinding religion to powder; 
that in Christian Europe the great lands of civilization are an armed camp ; 
that churches are splitting and falling apart ; and more than two hundred 
earnest, honest ministers have told me in confidence that they were tired of 
theology, that they looked for the day when religion alone would be the 
goal of men's hearts. So I plead for one church and a universal world- 
wide religion. The time will come when another Luther will protest, and 
men will open their eyes to the facts. It is not in the barbarous lands 
of anti-racials where evangelization should be carried; but in the home 
countries of Christianity, where darker sin prevails than the world knows 
of elsewhere. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Eules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXII. 

Missions. — Even in glorious America, from which are sent missionaries 
to all countries and peoples, — even here the discussion and quarrelling go 



GOOD. 393 

on concerning such matters as the inspiration and authorship of portions of 
the Old Testament, while the professions of gambling, politics, drunkenness, 
libel and countless crimes are flourishing with unabated increase. If ever 
missionaries were needed in America, they are needed now. Sin is darker 
here than in any country on the globe ; and it is far more dangerous amid 
civilization than in darkest Africa. I impugn the honesty of any set of men 
who will sit in comfort amid the increasing wickedness that is entrapping 
our young men and women, and will nevertheless plead for millions of 
dollars to save a handful of debauching negroes or lecherous Mongolians 
from a fate that was long ago sealed over their destiny. The great head of 
one of the greatest denominations of Christianity, visited Asia after millions 
of money had been spent there in missionary work, and declared that not 
one ray of real hope could be seen in all the great system of evangelization. 
While any man who will travel over the earth must conclude that missionary 
fruits are only numbers, not actual converts to God, and are rotten to the 
core ; yet the evangelization should not cease, for it carries the Caucasians 
over the world, and plants colonies for future nations. As far as accomplish- 
ing any religious good is concerned there is no hope of it. The millions of 
money sent to missionaries abroad belong in America. Let the wealth of 
charity be used to save the boys and girls of the coming generation. They 
need clothing and care and education. Are not the white Caucasian children 
of America as worthy of saving as the outcasts of barbarism? To this 
question the answer always is, we are doing the best we can. This is not 
true. I assert and will prove by overwhelming evidence that the so-called 
converts to missionary Christianity are insincere tricksters of the lowest 
classes called fallen, or outcasts, or those who have been expelled from caste, 
equal to the most worthless outlaws of human society in America. If the 
sending of needed money from this country for such purposes is deemed 
God's work, then let those who advocate it find for it a proper time ; and 
that time is only when our Caucasian boys and girls are amply cared for in 
this country. In the name of justice and on behalf of the deluded con- 
tributor, a commission should be appointed consisting of honest and non- 
sectarian men who shall personally inspect the mission fields of the world and 
report not merely the quantity of results but the quality also. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



394 H03IE CO UBS E IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCLXXIII. 

Inspiration of the Bible. — While Christian Europe is an armed 
camp, while force and even law are being used to hold up the creeds that 
prevail, while the denominations are splitting and falling asunder, the 
haggling goes on about authors, authorities and origins. Man's moral 
nature never asks if the Bible is inspired. It is strange that, after all 
these centuries, it is reserved for theologians of to-day to attack the 
Scriptures. The Word of God has furnished solace to all human yearn- 
ings, time without end ; yet, in this our age, it is under the cross-fire of 
professors in theological seminaries, and free thinkers by thousands in all 
the great and small denominations ; and from the theological schools there 
will go forth a new army of non-religious theologians who will undertake 
to settle the inspiration and authorship of this great gift of God to man ; 
thereby adding fuel to the heat of doubt now prevalent. I appeal to all 
persons to look to the human heart for those underlying principles which 
must eventually settle these questions; and I will endeavor to state them as 
clearly as possible. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essaj's," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXiy. 
Authorship. — Is the Bible the word of God or of man? If it is 
the word of God it was inspired to man. If it is not the word of God, it 
is merely the emanation of man's good impulses to conquer sin. If it is 
the word of God then the promises of immortality for the good and 
destruction for the bad, are to be regarded as settling the only two great 
problems that harass the soul. If it is in part the word of God and in 
part the word of man, then which is which? Now this is theology. It 
can do no good, and is not, in fact, man's business. Religion is subjective 
and relates to man's duties to God. Theology is objective and relates to 
God's duties to man; with which man has absolutely nothing to do. 
Theology can never settle the question of the authorship of the Bible; and 
for many reasons. In the first place, it is as impossible to determine who 
wrote the sublime work as it is to know how the flowers grow. The books 
ascribed to certain men may or may not have been their actual composition, 
whether inspired or not. A book may be dedicated to or named after some 



GOOD. 395 

principal personage. The tremendous church- splitting question whether 
Moses wrote any or all of the books ascribed to him is not religion, but 
theology, and therefore the work of Satan. The same difficulty is only 
intensified when we attempt to determine the problem of God's inspiration 
of the Scriptures. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXV. 

The Rule of Guidance. — There are persons who believe that God 
inspired every word of the Old and New Testaments, just as it is now 
written and presented in English. Such belief is well. It does no harm, 
and indicates merely the subjective or religious state of the believer; and 
if, at the great judgment day, it should be found that the head had erred, 
surely no sin can be charged to the heart. My rule of guidance is this : 
wherever there is doubt in the head and none in the heart, let the heart rule. 
It is pure religion and the only pure religion that exists. A poor old man, 
reading a serious misprint in the Bible and believing it, was far more 
religious than the clergyman who muddled his brain by a long disputatious 
explanation. The reason of this we shall see a few lessons hence. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXVI. 
Rule of Inspiration — In the light of modern knowledge it is well 
established that many marginal notes and statements have been added to the 
original text of the Bible, and printed into the authoritative versions. The 
way this came about is very simple and of common and easy occurrence. 
A man who owned a manuscript copy would write along the margin or near 
the text such observations as occurred to him ; or such truths as had been 
related by others. When time had elapsed, some worshipper would recopy 
the whole, and thus thousands of additions have been placed in the general 
Scriptures. We know that the good fathers of the early Christian centuries 
were either deceived by forgeries, or were cognizant of them ; for instance, 
we find in Josephus an acknowledged forgery of a reference to Christ, that 
has stood for all the centuries, until research showed it to be an interpolation. 
It was done by some persons in authority who thought it strange that 



396 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

Josephus should never have heard of Christ; so added a few words of 
reference in a very ingeuius and deceptive manner. The forgery is so 
plain that all religious investigators admit it, and all denominations have so 
settled the matter. Much also is known concerning the interpolations and 
spurious additions that have accidentally crept into the now fixed text of the 
Old and New Testaments. From the nature of these I have laid down the 
following rules. First, it seems that, in order to impress upon the ignorant 
classes the supreme authority of God, it was necessary to relate such 
marvels as would most deeply convince them. Nothing so impresses ignor- 
ance as the claim of miracles. The rule, therefore, is that all allegations of 
wonders and miracles are to be accepted as interpolations. Second, all allega- 
tions of God's promises to .makind, of His relations to us, of hope here and 
hereafter, and punishment for sin, are to be regarded as inspired and directly 
spoken by Him. In other words all the religion of the Bible is from God; 
all the theology of the Bible is a spurious addition or mere history and 
tradition. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXVII. 

Miracles There are many historical and philological reasons for 

believing that all the miracles of the Old Testament, except where God or 
angels appear to men, are interpolations. Nothing is more easily explained 
than that God or Christ might appear in the spirit or in flesh ; but these are 
not miracles. The so-called miracles and the histories and traditions are not 
to be considered as either divine or true. They stand for what they are 
worth on their face. I am sure that the account of creation and the records 
of miracles have kept many strong men out of the church — men as full of 
religion as any who are in the church. No man has a right to fence just so 
much literature in the limits of the Bible and say that it is the full quantity 
of God's word, neither too much nor too little. The Book had been growing 
for centuries, and was a varied and shifting collection of writings, some hav- 
ing been added and some having been taken out, when a fixed quantity was 
agreed upon as the Scriptures, but even here men could not abide by their 
agreement. Who says that just the present number of books must constitute 
the Bible ? Who says that any or all of these books are inspired ? The books 



GOOD. 397 

themselves do not — what right has man to do so ? It is more a sin for man 
to declare that God inspired that which He never said was inspired, than to 
say it is not inspired. Let us then accept as God's every word that is 
addressed to the heart or to the religion of man, and go no further. Here 
is absolute safety, and here we find nearly all that the Bible teaches included 
within one rule. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXVIII. 
Uninspired Text. — God never intended to write a history of any man 
or any set of men. If the Israelites were a chosen people, and all peoples 
claim to be favorites in choice, they were a very unmeritorious race. God 
could not write a history that began in obscurity, proceeded in mistakes, and 
ended by losing ten-twelfths of the chosen people. The account in Genesis 
is on a par with hundreds of traditions as to the origin of the human race. 
It is obscure and clouded, full of no information, and grossly burdened with 
a low order of tradition, compared with which the Chinese, Japanese, and 
Norwegian accounts are sublime. God never put those chapters in Genesis, 
and Moses never wrote them. That is absolutely settled. There is not 
either in or out of the church a thoughtful sensible man who believes that 
these chapters belong in the Bible. The story of the first man Adam, of the 
rib-bone, of the first woman, of the Garden of Eden, of the tree, the tempt- 
ation, the eating, the serpent, the exclusion from the garden, the marriage of 
Cain, and so forth, is an account of low tradition, absurd on its face, and 
God's blessing cannot rest upon those who try to force men and women to 
accept such a story as a part of their religious faith. As a tradition let it 
stand for what it is worth on its face, but the Bible proper begins after this 
tradition ceases. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXIX. 

Human Religion Every man and woman is a conflict of the two 

forces which are let loose in the Universe. All that is good in the heart is 
of God , but the Atoms, which are the agents, or in reality the very breath 
and life of God, are sent forth into space to meet and thwart the purposes of 



398 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

Satan. They meet him on the frontiers of the sky; and the union of the 
Atoms of God with the Atoms of Satan, occurs upon the great battle-globes 
of the universe — the suns. There the fight is waged with intense energy -, 
and, locked in each other's embrace, these messengers fly forth from their 
battle-globes out into the lines of space, where they accumulate in quieter 
material groups, reserving the continuation of the war to the intelligence of 
the Atoms. A good intelligence can never die, but may be overwhelmed, or 
held in check. Its awakening to life and activity is due to some excitant 
cause of a moral nature to which it responds. This response is religion, 
and no work or book ever given to man has such power to excite this response 
as the Bible. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXX. 

Free Agency Let any student of man and his motives examine this 

proposition, and apply it to human life in all its phases, and he will be sur- 
prised at the constantly brightening light which it sheds on all the problems 
of morality and religion. It explains what we are, why we are here, and 
what is our duty. It is useless to preach God's love and take our idea of 
God from the Bible, unless we regard man as the conflict of two forces, good 
and evil. The theory of free-will and free agency do not apply. It was 
originated as a guess to explain why an all-powerful Creator established a 
race of beings knowing that many of them must su£fer destruction, and the 
best of them must endure the pangs of living this life and passing through 
all its miseries and conflicts. There is no such thing as free agency. The 
good in us is oppressed and held in check by the bad, and the bad by the 
good. Each is as free as either of two combatants who are held by the 
throat, trying to choke the other to death. Neither can be shaken off. There 
is no free agency to this. The safety of either depends on alertness and 
watchfulness and constant conservation of forces. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXXI. 
Human Duty. — I shall discuss in Tome Ten the problems of salvation, 
and shall base man's only hope on his success in exciting into life and activity 
the religious nature which is a part of himself. One chief paramount duty 



GOOD. 399 

rests on every man and woman. This duty is not a law nor a command but 
a necessity, and a logical necessity. It needs no articles of faith, no creed, 
no theology, — nothing but a plain, direct, simple, God-inspired religion. It 
is a duty whose observance must break creeds, destroy differences and draw 
all men into one universal church. For that this Philosophy pleads and asks 
all good people to lend a helping hand. Then the world may be conquered. 
This duty, we have said, is a logical necessity. If an enemy has you by the 
throat, and that enemy is smaller and weaker than you, but far more active, 
you have but one duty to perform, and logical necessity tells you what it is. 
The tentacles and wiry claws of the enemy may be wound about your neck 
and imbedded in your flesh. I do not think Satan can be overthrown by 
one act or one overthrow ; but his claws and fingers and long, far-reaching, 
all-embracing arms must be out-rooted one by one, until the soul is free. 
We are not ourselves apart from this double life ; therefore when we think 
and ponder over these things, we sometimes look at them from the evil side 
of our hearts, and sometimes from the good. Our duty is to feed, nourish 
and excite only the good that constitutes part of our double nature ; and on 
this basis the present Philosophy is constructed. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXXII. 
The Process of Duty. — It is a clearly established fact that human 
nature is but an aggregation of intelligence ; that from the good Atoms and 
their progeny emanates the better side of life, which is an intelligence of 
harmony ; while the bad Atoms and their progeny have set up a government 
of their own in the body, whose purpose is to hold sway over their mortal 
foe. All things feed, all natures feed, all minds feed. What is fed to and 
accepted by anything excites that thing to life and strength and activity. 
If we feed our evil side it thrives. If we feed our good side it thrives. If 
we feed both they thrive. As the claim is strongly urged in Tome Ten that 
a destructible soul only emanates from the bad, and an immortal soul is 
metamorphosed from the good, and one must yield to the other, in the light 
of such claim it is the most solemn duty of every living human being to 
feed and nourish and cultivate the immortal side of the life and body 
entrusted to us. This process I shall call moral nourishment. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



400 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCLXXXIII. 

Moral Nourishment — When death comes the life gives up itself, 
either as a destructible soul, or as a metamorphosis. It cannot divide then ; 
nor can it divide now. It must yield up itself as one thing or another. To 
become metamorphosed as an immortal soul it must have overthrown and 
subdued the evil in this life; and this subjugation generally requires time 
and completeness. It is not a question of majorities. If the good pre- 
dominates by the percentage of fifty-five to forty-five, the margin is too 
narrow. The dominant sway of goodness must amount to supremacy of 
control, so that at no time could there be any doubt as to the result of 
temptation. Such supremacy is not obtainable in a day. It is the result of 
long-continued moral nourishment. Let us see how we shall feed this 
better-self. There are in life, and in every phase of life, two distinct classes 
of food which may be fed or denied our human souls, and the study of these 
are now in order. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXXIV. 
Code of Religion. — Laying aside all books and all aids from literature, 
let us take our code of religion from the heart, from humanity's demands, 
from Nature and from the God-life which is instinct in every good motive. 
This code is composed of natural principles ; but excludes no other, and 
includes the good in all others. Its first principle is the discarding of all 
nourishment that may excite into being or may maintain any evil in our 
body or heart. After that we find the positive demands of morality. The 
two sides constitute the religion that must, and the only religion that can, 
make the metamorphosis of an immortal soul a possibility. This code 
should be printed, engraved or enlarged in some form and hung in promi- 
nence in the sleeping-room of every person who hopes to extricate the soul 
from the meshes of evil. It consists, in the first place, of such fundamental 
principles as are found to have universal existence ; and of these there are 
eight which are emanations from the intelligence of the God-Atoms in our 
natures, and eight which are emanations from the devil-Atoms in our 
natures. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



GOOD. 



401 



CHART OF RELIGION. 



The One Fact of the Universe : 
There are two influences at conflict on the frontier of space. 



The One Fact of Earth : 

Man is aggregate Atomic life, composed of the elements of this conflict, 
ever at war for supremacy. 

The Problem of Salvation or Destruction : 

Immortality is the reward of a good life ; and, in order to be attained, 
the God-nature in man must achieve complete mastery over the devil- 
nature. Death ends man ; death ends, therefore, the conflict ; and death 
ends all hope for the unsaved. 

EXPRESSION 



OF the 


OF THE 


GOD-NATURE. 


DEVIL-NATURE. 


The Church 


The Drin king-room 


is the house of God. 


is the house of the devil. 


The Bible 


The Newspaper 


is the agent of God. 
The Honest Man 


is the agent of the devil. 
The Liar 


is the representative of God. 
Charity 


is the representative of the devil. 
Gambling 


is the money-changing of God. 
Cleanliness 


is the money-changing of the 
Filth [devil. 


is next to Godliness. 


is the association of flesh-devils. 


Love 


Hate 


is the voice of goodness. 
Activity 


is the voice of evil. 
Laziness 


is the work-shop of God. 
Harmony 


is the work-shop of the devil. 
Discord 


is the peace of God. 


is the clattering of the devil. 



26 



402 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCLXXXV. 

Natural Principles The sixteen principles which underlie all life 

and all motives, are seen to be the following: For God, — the Church, the 
Bible, the Honest Man, Charity, Cleanliness, Love, Activity, and Harmony; 
for the devil, the Drinking-Room, the Newspaper, the Liar, Gambling, Filth, 
Hate, Laziness, Discord. If the Chart of Keligion is enlarged and hung in 
your sleeping-room, it will convey to your mind, as the first impression of 
the morning and the last at night, the immortal laws of your double being ; 
and that which is first conned at dayrise abides longest through the working 
hours of life, while the heart absorbs the last impression before sleep. As 
some affirmative action is necessary to the soul's salvation, this, which comes 
nearest and closest to our real selves, should be made the foremost of our 
duties. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Kules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXXVI. 

The First Principle. — This is the Church. So long as it is the home 
of peace, it is the house of God. A large proportion of thoughtful people 
do not respect the church, because it is too often the house of theology. Let 
its clergymen preach religion and it will draw all men unto it. But even as 
it is, it represents the best of earth. Many of the choicest persons of every 
community are church goers, and all wish to be. It is an underlying prin- 
ciple of morality that all good-seekers should band together and meet at 
such time as all may; which is on the day set apart to church attendance. 
See that this is done. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXXVII. 
The Second Principle. — This is the Bible. Because the most civil- 
ized minds of all ages — the Greeks and Romans — were without the Bible, 
they were pagans. But, as far as the times permitted, they were believers 
in the same fundamental laws of morality which have always prevailed 
among decent humanity. Without the Bible to-day, the civilization under 
which we live would have evolved some religion, based on the eight laws of 
right. No matter what has been the literature of a people they have had a 
religion, and that religion has always been commensurate with their mental 
strength. A barbarous people would evolve a barbarous religion ; a refined 



GOOD. 403 

peojjle a refined religion ; an intellectual people an intellectual religion and 
so accordingly. The Bible represents the lowest ebb and the highest flow of 
the sea of moral progress. As a history of the mutations of the human 
soul, it is a wonderful composition ; and, on its subjective side, it is the rev- 
elation of God's purpose to man. A copy should be in every room of the 
house, and on the desk of every oflice. There are times when a glance at 
its pages will stir the soul to nobler action. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXXVIII. 

The Third Principle. — This is the Honest Man. Honesty excludes 
theft, subterfuge, strategy and diplomacy. Of all the codes and creeds of 
the world, none has any moral basis that is not built on honesty. If the attempt 
were to be made to reduce all religion to one word, Honesty would be that 
word. It represents, in its highest meaning, the Justice of God and lifis ; 
and is opposed to freedom, or the right to do as one pleases regardless of 
the privileges of others. Thus it is opposed to all those conditions of free- 
dom which trammel on the general rights of the public. God is honest in 
that he is just. If a man disobeys the law of health the punishment is 
sure, because it is God's law and is just. If another exercises a freedom 
that gives license to lawlessness, the chance of punishment is slight, because 
man makes the law and trusts its execution to human effort. Not so with 
the laws of God. Honesty, therefore, is sublime when it stands as the 
expression of justice. Man cannot be just, because he is not perfect, but 
he may be honest ; and, in so far as he cultivates this principle, he builds 
for immortality. I insist on absolute honesty ; on all honesty, direct and 
open honesty ; even though it leads to trouble. Religion without it is bar- 
barous ; with it, glorious. The world needs this more than any creed. It 
should be taught and preached and practiced as the one great thing of life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCLXXXIX. 
The Fourth Principle. — This is Charity. Misdirected charity is a 
sin. Help to the lazy is unjust, and therefore un-Godlike. Do you think 
you are better than the Creator? He permits the lazy to starve. Justice, 
if it prevailed, would soon drive the idlers to work, and create influences of 
production and trade that would aid prosperity. But the weak whimper 



404 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME NINE. 

and give for the sake of charity, or through cowardice, as to the tramp. 
This is false charity, and is a sin. I do not believe there is true charity in 
any act of life that does not hunt out the beneficiary. To sit still in our 
homes, and take a small percentage from over-large profits, is an agreeable 
method of assuming to be charitable ; but the proper method is to tabulate 
the homes of every street in a certain limit, to have a census of all who 
dwell in each home, to allow no strangers to come to that limit, unless their 
coming and going are known, to compel all who are ill to submit to treat- 
ment for restoration to health, to compel all idlers among the poor to work, 
to force all children to keep clean, be decent, and go to school ; and then, as 
the poor must be known, they may be cared for. This is the duty of the 
church, and it will save many dollars of taxation. It is practical religion, 
as compared with theoretical theology for which I have a profound disgust. 
What about saving the souls of the unfortunate ? Theology calls at their 
homes, when the flour is out and the faces are pinched with hunger, and 
asks: "Are you saved? Are you christians? Do you go to church ? " — 
to all of which the famished family answer, always in looks and sometimes 
in words, " None of your business." And the answer is right. Theology 
has no business there. Practical religion will find them health, employment 
and food ; and, for the good thus rendered, the well-fed stomach will give 
strength of reply to the heart. Let charity begin at home, and aright. 
Now I know that the foregoing plan is practical and can be carried out. I 
have seen it tested many times. I will agree to go to any irreligious starv- 
ing family, and, by first feeding and helping them on in life, I will gain the 
way to their religious natures. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXC. 
The Fifth Principle. — This is Cleanliness. It means simply that the 
three-sided nature should be kept clean. God demands it, and no religious 
person can deny it without risk. Our triple life consists of mind, body and 
emotions. Cleanliness of mind has relation to what we think, and say and 
read. It is easy to think evil ; but a quick act of the will is sure to drive out 
the thought. Unclean thoughts will not often return their visits if we bar 
the door to them. Our words are messengers of the mind, our tones of the 
heart. Never listen to, nor utter, words that are unclean. The joke is witty, 



I 



GOOD. 405 

but, if not pure, it leaves a stain. In reading be choice to exactness. Drop 
that nasty sheet with heavy headlines. Drop all newspapers, unless you can 
satisfy yourself that they can do you some good. The cleanest of them are 
loaded with lies, sensations and filth. Drop that nasty novel. What a 
draught on the resources of filth in the minds of people is the desire of the 
novelist to have his obscene book stopped by the government, so that it can- 
not go through the mails ; for then the people buy it. Curiosity and a love 
of filth pay for the enormous edition that enriches the obscene writer ; none 
of which would be known except through the channels of the newspaper. 
Be clean of heart ; let the emotions outgrow passion. Be clean of body ; 
clean morning and night. I believe in the Godliness of daily bathing. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCI. 
The Sixth Principle. — This is Love. It is more than the absence of 
hate. It is the voice of goodness, speaking in every act of life. It is 
capable of the highest cultivation from efforts alone. We should love flowers 
and music, for they represent harmony. We should love all the world, and 
give it some of the sunshine of our hearts, through individual efforts. It 
is wrong to ignore the lowly; we may pity them, but that is empty. Love 
fills pity with the sweet essence of practical religion. If everybody were to 
set about to do a little good for others, the whole earth would blossom in a 
day into a garden of human flowers. Why not try it? Not alone, but 
through an organized movement. If you love God, you will love the lowly. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCII. 

The Seventh Principle. — This is Activity. It is clearly known 
to-day that mental energy keeps the body in health. It employs many of our 
faculties. An early rising, plenty of air and exercise, some plan of self- 
improvement for the day, some good to be accomplished for others, this is 
the practical religion of activity. It cannot safely be omitted. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCIII. 
The Eighth Principle. — This is Harmony. It is the first knowledge 
of the soul. Have you ever laid aside the evil motives that crowd yovir life, 
and given yourself up to a strong fight to quell the devil that is in you ? 



406 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

By keeping the mind clean, and associating only with the influences that 
excite the inherent goodness that dwells in the better nature of every 
individual, the response is clear and ringing. The good seeks to come to 
the surface. Feed it, and the devil within you will have no control over 
you ; for God is stronger than Satan. You are a part of God, and a part of 
the devil. In-as-far as evil is driven out, the sense of harmony becomes 
manifest through the presence of good. God is all peace, all evenness, all 
harmony. There is no average human being who cannot prove this by 
experiment ; for, as soon as the discord of evil is quelled, the notes of all 
action of mind and body and heart come into tune with divine peace. How 
often I have seen a young man led away from a life of gambling and drink, 
to the cleanly walks of morality and the glow of the cheek, the lustre of the 
eye, the glad bearing of the frame, told the story of harmony with God. I 
had rather meet such a new made being than the monarch of earth's proudest 
empire. There are two emblems of harmony that all should learn to love : 
music and the flowers. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCIV. 
Music. — In its best it is grand, in its worst it is never wrong. The 
words may add filth to the association of song, but the music itself is incap- 
able of such descent. All solemn services begin with music ; and all meet- 
ings should include this art. The mind should educate itself to an appreci- 
ation of the noblest compositions of the great masters, and not be swayed by 
the catchy rhythm of cheap airs ; although all are beautiful. As harmony 
is the great attribute of the soul, and as music is the art of harmony, it 
should be cultivated in the highest degree as something to be listened to, 
enjoyed and appreciated. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON LCCXCV. 
Flowers. — Vegetation is a lesser degree of the conflict of natural 
Atoms ; and only in spots does its harmony appear. Wherever the phos- 
phates concentrate, there the elements of brain and soul appear as flowers. 
They are the harmony of color and form. One who loves flowers cannot be 
very wicked, for such love is inspired by the better value that dwells in the 
heart. I believe each flower to be the winged messenger of God to human- 



GOOD. 407 

ity, and each thorn the arrow-head of the devil's malice. Flower-worship 
is God-worship. Nothing that belongs to Nature is so close to the Creator 
as the beauteous form of harmonic colors and design. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays." at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCVI. 

The Ninth Principle This is the Drinking-Room. It may be in a 

hotel, at a bar, in a private house, or wherever the alcoholic liquor may be 
found. A street alley is a drinking-room if beer or other similar beverage 
is taken there. Aside from the moral question, it is clearly a fact that alco- 
hol is a pure food in the control of and completely possessed by DEVS. 
These messengers of his Satanic majesty seek to poison the best nourish- 
ment of the body. They prefer rye, corn, wheat, barley and similar grains, and 
the best juices of the best fruitfj. These they turn into DEVS, and it is 
then possessed of the devil. On the moral side, as on the physical, the re- 
sult is the same. On the mental side, a man is not full brained who will 
taste it, or offer it to others. Evidence of this is found among men in such 
abundance that the fact of a man's being willing to drink is openly ascribed 
to his mental weakness, rather than to moral deficiency. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCVII. 
The Tenth Principle. — This is the Newspaper. If any evidence 
were lacking of this being the agent of the devil, the case could be proved 
by the fact that it attempts at times to cloak itself in good clothing. Thus 
we find occasional defenses of the good, sometimes a sermon, and often an 
appeal to charity; though all the charity dodges of newspapers are so openly 
hypocritical on their face, that, in spite of mock solemnity, they are accepted 
by the public as advertising schemes. There is no newspaper not open to 
conviction on the following charges : first, it publishes all news, regardless 
of the question of morality, if the matter is only interesting; second, it 
publishes thousands of statements as facts, without knowing whether they 
are true or not. These two charges convict everyone of the best and 
so-called cleanest of the sheets ; and, without considering the low order 
of intellectual sewerage that flows through the chief efforts of newspaper 
writers, the fact of moral indifference alone is sufficient to ostracize every 
newspaper of America from the home and atmosphere of all decent people. 



408 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

I except none of the dailies. It is your duty to organize a movement 
having for its object the following distinct features: first, the founding 
of weekly newspapers called by no other name than " The Weekly History" 
of whatever the city or town may be ; second, the publication in such paper 
of only such matters as educate, inform, instruct, entertain and amuse the 
public, and the exclusion of libel, slander, crime, court records, gossip, and 
the slush that now fills more than half the reading columns of so-called 
respectable papers ; third, an organized support by all decent people of 
such Weekly History, by agreeing to trade with those merchants who adver- 
tise in the Weekly History, and absolutely refusing to trade or deal in any 
way with those who advertise in dailies. That this can be done is assured ; 
for there is a moral sentiment rising rapidly in America against the thieves 
of private life, the murderers of character, the scavengers of filth, the 
lying curs, the vultures of indecency, the cowardly hounds of the lowest 
stripe, who constitute not a set but a universal caste of soulless devils called 
newspaper men. Having not one particle of respect for the truth, being 
willing to publish anything that is interesting as news, these outcasts of 
respectable homes, one and all are hated by the good and bad alike, and lack 
every element of respectability. They are sneaks in the drawing, if ever 
they get that far, and are braggadocios in front of the bar. I am sure 
there is not an honest man connected with the furnishing of news for daily 
papers ; and I am glad to say that the editors of the weeklies are, as a rule, 
honest and honorable. I ask you and all those friends who come under your 
influence to discard the daily and Sunday papers as indecent ; and to help 
build up the weekly paper in your town or county. Will you do this ? 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCVIII. 

The Eleventh Principle This is the Liar. He is everywhere, 

after gossip and slander, plying his avocation for the mere pleasure it 
affords the devils within him. The good part of a human being never told 
a lie. It is the work of the evil side. The latter never told the truth. 
When you are good enough to entertain some friend who, after the 
generalizations of the conversation are over, plunges into a dissection of 
the character and doings of other people, you can see the devil shining in 
the evil lustre of the eye. It is worth the while to watch for this, for you 



GOOD. 409 

will never come nearer to a personal knowledge of the appearance of Satan. 
We will suppose you have before you the queen of all gossips, an idle 
woman, and some character or reputation to dissect ; as soon as she ceases 
to flatter those whom she is to besmear, then comes the devil in the lustre 
of her eye. It is so clear, so distinct in entrance that no one can fail to 
recognize it. Liars are all of them of one stripe, and the remarks con- 
tained in the latter part of the preceding lesson will apply to the real 
character of these moral vermin. I do not believe a liar ever saw or ever 
will see the Kingdom of Heaven. Every law of life and salvation is 
against it. 

For Essays on this subject, sec " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCXCIX. 

The Twelfth Principle. — This is Gambling. It is the devil's ex- 
change. The good part of a person never desires to gamble. The law of 
chance, like the doctrine of superstition, belongs to evil. So frequent is this 
sin, that it is almost universal ; its latest appearance being at the horse-race. 
Every person present at such a race is an abettor to the crime of gambling, 
and equally a criminal. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCC. 
The Thirteenth Principle. — This is Filth. If you will take any 
part of the scrapings of refuse matter from the surface of the body and 
examine it under a microscope, you will find a cheesy mass of broken down 
tissues in and through which numberless animalculse and bacteria are crawl- 
ing. Your skin is loaded with DEVS. How long do you wish to keep 
them there? They do more or less harm to the body and to the blood. A 
good bath cleanses the skin and carries them off. I am sure that the clothing 
which has been worn against the skin during the day is not fit to be worn at 
night, and that night clothing should not be worn by day. The well washed 
face, hands and body are gifts to our better self. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at ihe end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCT. 
The Fourteenth Principle, — This is Hate. In a certain portion of 
Russia a sect of earnest people are trained in their religion to eradicate all 
hate from their hearts. This is an example of religion. I ask that every 



410 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE NINE. 

student of this Philosophy may resolve to expel all thoughts and feelings of 
hate from their minds, hearts and lives. Shall this be done? What a 
mighty tidal wave of reform might sweep across America if the principles 
furnished to man by the instrumentality of God through Nature were 
observed in the lives of everybody. The time is sure to come when these 
rules of conduct must prevail. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCII. 

The Fifteenth Principle. — This is Laziness. No human being has a 
right to be idle or lazy. Then the mind is occupied by evil, and the heart 
is filled with designs of ill. A busy man or woman has no time to be idle. 
The laborer remains the laborer all his life because he must spend his even- 
ings out, or else in the gratification of his appetite or low mental tastes. 
Were he ambitious he would drop the newspaper that does him no good and 
all injury, and take up some line of thought or study, whereby he may rise 
out of his humbler calling. From laborer to employer is open to any man 
who will seek self education at home evenings. The busy wife has hours a 
day for scandal, but none for study. Let her store the mind with knowl- 
edge gleaned from little moments, and she will become a power among her 
sex. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Kules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCIII. 

The Sixteenth Principle. — This is Discord. It is the unrest of an 
unsaved soul. The Christian has it, the church member has it, as well as 
those who are classed as the un-Godly ; for it does not follow that the soul 
is saved because the name is enrolled on the church records. There are 
many church members who will never see Heaven or taste immortality, and 
many without the church whose names are recorded in the Tome of the angel 
of God. Salvation is nothing more nor less than the harmony of life, and 
that harmony can only come from the good part of our nature. It is the 
music of the strings of the many-toned instrument which constitutes human- 
ity. It is the blossom amid the thorns of life's garden. The supreme con- 
trol of self, following the overthrow of evil, is so well felt and understood 
that all doubt is discord. If you do not know that you are at perfect peace, 
you may rest assured that you are not. There is not the shadow of a doubt 



GOOD. 411 

as to the perfect harmony of a saved soul. Time strides along with giant 
step, and leaves no opportunities behind. Soon the portcullis will fall. 
Hell is not a pleasant prospect. Your duty to yourself is now. It makes 
no difference what your choice of church may be ; your soul demands imme- 
diate action. I am not a preacher, and never have been, nor an exhorter. I 
am dealing with this subject from a secular and philosophical standpoint, as 
a man might deal with the question of the time a train leaves the city for a 
certain station. The conclusion is as mathematical as it is religious, that 
harmony is necessary in the human soul before death, in order to enable it 
to inherit immortality. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCIV. 

Summary. — I have dealt with the great principles of natural religion. 
The question may be asked. Where did I get them ? The answer is plain, I 
got them from Nature. Does this Nature dispute God or the Bible? No, 
it is the extraction of the good forces of Nature, of which God is the author, 
and the Bible the exponent. Is the Bible inspired by God? Yes, every 
word that relates to man's spiritual being is the direct inspiration of God ; 
and whether the rest may or may not be does not concern any man living. 
The Bible is a moral guide in its least proportions, and, in its greatest, it 
lights the pathway to Heaven, and points out with vivid distinctness the road 
that leads to Hell. Is there really a Hell? The final Tome will speak of 
that, and of human destiny. In closing this Tome, let me state certain con- 
clusions drawn from these great underlying principles of right. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCV. 
First Conclusion. — In the first place, as I have repeatedly shown, I do 
not believe that God is capable of making an imperfect being like man ; 
and no plea of purpose, or hidden motive can be safely advanced to excuse 
Him for creating so fearful a work as the average human combination of 
the world. That God is all powerful in His own realm and over His own 
forces, I do not deny ; but that there is a counter influence at work to 
thwart His plans and purposes no theologian does, and no religionist can, 
vouchsafe to dispute. The only question is merely one of time. I am satis- 
fied that God did not make man to fall, which would have been a merciless 



412 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

and cruel creation ; but that man is a part of the two forces in conflict, — 
part God and part Devil. All persons admit that he is so now ; I claim 
that he was made so. The desperate and horrible struggle against sin, and 
sin itself, must be the creation of God, or else the war of forces. That the 
latter is true there can be no doubt ; whichever way we turn for evidence, 
the same truth appears. In the conflict of Atoms, in the chemical conflict 
of molecules, in the conflict of health and disease, in the conflict of tissue- 
builders and pathogenic bacteria, or Angs and Devs, in the conflict of vege- 
tation, of growth and attack, of weeds and plants, of flowers and thorns, in 
the conflict of sin and morality, of temptation and purity, of crime and 
holiness, of the church and the drinking-room, of the Bible and the news- 
paper, of honesty and falsehood, of charity and gambling, of cleanliness and 
filth, of love and hate, of activity and laziness, of harmony and discord, 
there is one continuous and unbroken chain of evidence sustaining the claim 
that humanity is a conflict of God and the Devil. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCVI. 
Second Conclusion. — Accepting the well understood fact that the 
human heart is the camping ground of these two forces, the great question 
arises how far man is in danger of the results of a condition that he did not 
originate and cannot avoid. I will admit that if God created man and, hav- 
ing power to hold him pure, permitted him to fall, then man is an irre- 
sponsible agent of his own ruin ; and eternity must replace him on the 
pedestal from which he departed. But such a theory is the guess of the 
dark centuries ; and is splitting and dividing churches and creeds as the real 
religionists come to see that it is a falsehood on its face. The Bible holds 
the key to the solution; for, wherever it throws light on the matter, it 
speaks in undeniable terms of a personal devil, and of the final destruction 
of unsaved souls. All theology, all religion, all inspired words, all the 
teachings of the Bible, all Nature, and all life declare in open language and 
in unwavering harmony that the good alone shall triumph and inherit im- 
mortality. As the triumph of the good is merely the survival of the better 
part of humanity, it is the only possible conclusion that can be drawn, — 
that immortal life cannot be attained unless such triumph be achieved. 

For Essays on this subject, see " E,ules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



GOOD. 413 

LESSON DCCCVII. 

Third Conclusion — We are next led to the question, How far is man 
responsible for his own salvation? This life is undoubtedly a key to destiny. 
There is no future problem for the wicked ; there are no future temptations. 
Good only can survive mortality. The present existence is neither a trial 
life, nor a probation. God is not cruel enough to compel any being to 
endure that accumulative misery of body, mind and heart, which He had 
the power to avert. If the Devil can win men to sin so greatly that God 
repents the creation of man, then He is powerless in this regard. Theolo- 
gians say He is powerless by his own decree ; seeking to put men to the test 
of their own volition. Even if such theology is true, it leaves the struggle 
entirely to the human being, and clothes him with the responsibility. But 
such theology is weak. It is neither stated in, nor suggested by, the Bible. 
If we look at life either as the key to the solution or as a forerunner of the 
hereafter, we find the true principle ever present. The ability to emerge 
from entanglements is the sole responsible factor of the result. Man has 
always been entangled. There are not figures enough in arithmetic to repre- 
sent the numbers of millions that have been overwhelmed by Nature, in the 
struggle to emerge from the entanglements of barbarism. The elements 
have slain millions. The seas have engulfed millions. Beasts have 
devoured millions. Barbarism has tortured millions. All the ages the one 
story has been. What is man doing for himself ? The horrible hell of bar- 
baric tortures was neither the creation nor the offspring of God. And so, 
if death is merely the cessation of a life of terrors, there is less cruelty in 
the annihilation of the wicked than in permitting them to live on earth : 
they suffer more before death than after ; and if they were to live eternally, 
forgetful of having lived here, such new life would be an oblivion of this ; 
and oblivion means annihilation. Thus the way to destruction after death, 
seems to be free from all theological objections. But our question is of 
higher moment, — How can man emerge from himself ? Or, how may the 
good within him triumph over the bad ? That this can be done will appear 
in our next Conclusion. The fact that it is possible makes man the arbiter 
of his fate, and the only being responsible for his salvation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



414 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCCVIII. 
Fourth Conclusion. — My fourth conclusion is, that the better part of 
man is able to emerge from, and triumph over, the evil that is within him. 
No person, of genuine honesty, has yet had the hardihood to deny that he is 
possessed of evil tendencies; and I would not believe the person who 
declared that there was no devil within him. The absolutely holy and the 
perfectly sanctified are stupid people of sluggish minds and lazy bodies. 
Activity is the test of genuine goodness. It is only through active morality 
that salvation is won. Work, and fight, and pray, are the insignia of every 
good man and woman ; habits that must be worn openly and always. 
Moral action is of three kinds : labor in the heart, warfare in the world, and 
a constant reaching out for help from above. The day should begin with, 
continue with, and end with this triple activity. There is no other way of 
emerging from the entanglements of evil ; and no other way has ever been 
offered by religion or by theology. But, you ask, what was the fate of the 
countless millions who reeked in crime, bloody orgies and inhuman tortures, 
who never knew that this was the only way ? They are at rest ; and their 
vital energies, never fit to metamorphose into immortal souls, have long since 
been disintegrated into Atoms and caught up into life again, as unrecogniz- 
able as the particles of matter that leave the dissolving flesh. What was 
the fate of the mariners, whose thousands of vessels were wrecked upon 
hidden rocks, long before the perils of the ocean were revealed through 
charts ? Safety in maritime adventure has been compelled to emerge from 
its entanglements by the diligent search of man. So goodness is left to its 
impulses ; and probably no century has failed to produce its millions of good 
men and women. We are discovering no new principle ; but are seeking to 
throw all the light possible on the path, and the only path, that is safe to 
travel. Let us imagine that you desire to enter upon, or to keep in such a 
path. Your desire to do this is the labor of the heart; and that is one- 
third of the whole victory. Does any one believe that a person is to be 
saved who has no desire to be saved ? All goodness is the fruit of a heart 
whose desire is to be good. The wish is the seed of success. This desire, 
is either present, or absent. If it is absent it may be stimulated by the 
Chart of Religion. Have some person make a large copy of this Chart, 
and be sure that it hangs in your room. Your life is double ; it contains 



GOOD. 416 

the Expression of God-nature and the Expression of Devil- nature ; all of 
which appear in the Sixteen Principles on the Chart. You must stimulate 
the one side and suppress the other. This is heart labor. You may aid it 
by good thoughts, good reading, good deeds and good associations. This is 
inward action. 

The second action is outward. It is warfare. People will argue that 
there is no need of fighting sin, if one is only good. Such argument is the 
lowest order of hypocrisy. If you wish to know how the devil appears in 
his finest dress, watch the eyes of any so-called moral person who is told 
that salvation can be attained only by warfare. The person will either 
sneeringly brush the assertion aside with an exclamation of " Too foolish to 
answer/' or will draw numberless examples from life of such a one, who is 
good and does no fighting, and such another one who is sweet and docile and 
respected, and never makes war against sin. These arguments are of the 
Evil One. Satan suggests to the so-called sanctified man or woman the use- 
lessness and the danger of making open war against sin ; so they take life as 
it comes, expecting the reward of immortality. It will never come. Your 
interests are to be with God's or against God's. He hates the Drinking- 
room, the Newspaper, the Liar, the Gambler, the Nasty, the Revengeful, the 
Idler and the Brawler. His only agents are the good men and women of 
earth. His interests must be yours ; and you dare not deny it. You may be 
ever so good ; but your goodness is mere stupidity, if you do not make your 
interests God's interests. You hope to go to Heaven ; but to whose Heaven ? 
If not God's, whose ? If God hates sin, and His only warriors against sin 
are men and women, are they to discard His interests and then hope for his 
Heaven ? Deep down in the great heart of Nature the eternal principle of 
Justice cries, "No !" You will never see Heaven, will never taste the bliss of 
immortality, if you do not commence at once an open warfare against the 
eight great foes of God. This may only be accomplished by combination, — 
that great law of growth and achievement. You must first work within 
yourself ; then fight by yourself to win others to join you ; and always pray. 

Prayer is the third action. It should be a distinct expression of a 
desire to be good, and a strong seeking after help to stimulate that desire. 
Such prayer should be addressed to God alone ; for from the fountain of all 
goodness comes the greatest help. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



416 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

LESSON DCCCIX. 
The Fifth Conclusion. — My final conclusion is, that combination is 
necessary to a person's moral welfare. A hermit may worship his deity in 
the wilderness, but his retirement is a crime against society. All long con- 
tinued seclusion, even at home, is a moral wrong, and a willful defiance of 
Nature and God. The Sabbath should be devoted to the special cultivation 
of our better selves. People should, on that day, combine, meet, talk, plan^ 
worship, teach, be taught, and associate with all that is good — with flowers, 
music and every noble influence. Private devotion and seclusion are neces- 
sary to every life, but there should be a time and place set apart for such 
duties. Every person should be fixed in some combination with others, 
arranged on a business basis, the object of which is to engage in open war- 
fare against the eight representatives of Devil-nature, which appear on the 
Chart of E-eligion. You may think this kind of fighting is a hardship. So 
is life. Better a hardship and Heaven, than rest and decay. 

THE HARDSHIPS OF MORAL WARFARE. 

1. Accepting as true the principle which is the truth of truths, that 
no person will inherit eternal life who is unwilling to openly wage war 
against evil, let us see how easily the hardships may be borne. There is a 
logical order in all things, and we should find it in this. Senseless fighting 
is useless and fruitless. The first thing to be done is to commit to memory 
the following RESOLUTION : " I resolve to fight for morality by fighting 
against immorality. In this warfare I will remain active to the end of my 
life. If, in seeking to suppress sin, I am called by any epithet or abused in 
any manner I shall regard such malignity as positive evidence that I have 
uncovered the Evil One, and such abuse shall not deter me from my fixed 
purpose of fighting sin as long as I live." It is your duty to copy this in 
your private record book, and to sign it in ink. You have then taken the 
first step. 

2. The second step demands that you procure an associate who must 
be thoroughly in earnest. No books and no fees are necessary ; nothing but 
pen, ink, paper, and genuine earnestness. Do not have an associate who is 
over-earnest, and then luke-warm. The case is a solemn one. As soon as 
the second step is taken, you are ready for the third. There are two persons 
now instead of one, working to accomplish substantial good. 



GOOD. 41T 

3. The third step is to double the number of your members. To thi& 
end a meeting should be held some evening. This Philosophy will furnish 
ideas, themes, topics, arguments, and facts without limit. In it is every- 
thing. If there is needed any argument for any good thing, or against any 
bad thing, or in explanation of any subject in life, you will find it in this 
Philosophy. Have the book in your AE meetings, as we propose to call 
them. Before two persons may hold an AE meeting, they must each have 
added one to the number, making a total of four. At the second meeting 
each must have added one again, making eight. At each meeting this 
doubling process must be maintained until the number equals a hundred. 
Any person of intelligent understanding may become a member. AE is the 
term applied to the breath of God, or the Atomic life which extends every- 
where through space, connecting Heaven with Earth, and uniting man with 
God. It is upon this universal ether that all prayers are carried from the 
heart of the worshipper to the ear of the Father. It is the most solenm 
word that we can utter. When pronounced, it is of two syllables, contain- 
ing the first two sounds of every life. The vowels are given their natural 
sound, the same that prevails all through Europe, and in the English and 
American Universities. A being Ah, and E being Aye, rhyming with day. 
The pronunciation, therefore, may easily become universal and world-wide. 
It invites the union of all churches, the amalgamation of all creeds, the 
abolition of theology, the universality of religion, and the spread of church 
harmony in place of what is now church dissension. Many able thinkers 
agree with me in the soundness of these claims. I feel sure that they must 
eventually prevail. They accept the entire Bible: They believe that the 
historical matters belong there for historical purposes; that the theology is 
intended to represent the progress of objective morality ; but that the relig- 
ion is all that concerns any church, any member or any preacher. That is 
all that God ever intended to be used in the efforts to attain salvation. Had 
the historical and theological" portions (most of which are interpolations and 
marginal notes) never been permitted to enter into the teachings of the churchy 
dissension would have been impossible. The religion of the Bible should be 
the religion of every human life. Clergymen who preach theology never 
have much, if any, spiritual success. Keligion is food to the hunger of the 
soul. 

27 



418 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

4. The fourth step is practical religion, or open warfare against the 
Evil One. What shall be done ? First, look at the Chart of Religion, on 
the evil side, and learn what representatives of the Devil may be most easily 
attacked. The heaviest forces of Hell are at the top of the list of eight ; 
the weakest at the bottom; although all the evils are strong. Discord is the 
easiest to manage, comparatively speaking. Discord is everywhere present. 
You will find the Devil at work in your own heart trying to keep you from 
fulfilling your "Resolution," trying to prevent those who have signed the 
"Resolution" from keeping its terms. Some who are present at one meet- 
ing may be absent at another; thus showing that the Evil One has controlled 
them. iJarmoni/ conquers Discord; and ijTarmow^/ requires that each per- 
son who has signed the "Resolution" should attend all meetings, and be 
evermore united. The next expression of Satan is Laziness. As far as your 
" Resolutionists " are concerned they must not bear evidence of being 
possessed of this malign influence. Cultivate Activity always. A lazy per- 
son will not feel much like coming out to the meetings of the "Resolulionists." 
Then we come to Hate. Drive it out of the heart. It is the voice of your 
arch-enemy. Filth, too, is a sin. Bathe frequently enough to keep clean, 
and be always neat. The lower four, just mentioned, have reference to 
yourself, as a conquest ; the upper four require the aid of your organization 
in open attacks upon those influences which keep the world bad ; gambling, 
lying, sensationalism and alcohol. All horse-racing, all foot-ball, all base- 
ball, all "sports" so-called, are the inseparable companions of gambling. 
Your work is to make this known, to teach it to all children, to help make 
laws suppressing it, and to see that they are executed. But this is the old 
method. It is a step only. You are next to divide your county into dis- 
tricts ; draw all people to you, who will come ; then publish once a year the 
list of those with whom you will trade or associate ; and a list of those who 
are gamblers or who support gamblers. By this means the "Resolutionists" 
will soon be feared. A "Resolutionist" is one who has signed and who 
lives up to the Resolution referred to in the early part of this lesson. 
Lying may be so treated. The Newspaper will ridicule all who seek 
to do good. The attack of the press is the most wholesome sign. It 
proves the correctness of your position. I wish you could see the multi- 
tudes of letters and hear from the thousands of good people who tell me 



GOOD. 419 

that the Newspapers are the curse of America. If a vote could be taken, 
every good man and woman who breathes would desire to vote against this 
evil. But, then, the devil steps in and says: "Better the good-will of a 
dog than the ill-will." So all classes try to buy peace by flattering the press. 
Even judges attempt the same thing. The time for that is passing. In good 
homes, in bright and sunny homes, in Christian and even in non-Christian 
homes, the sensational ])aper never a])pears on the table. One thousand 
homes agree that no paper of the sensational kind shall enter the door ; but 
more than that, they agree not to trade with those who advertise in a paper 
that publishes anything more than the history of the week, and good litera- 
ture. And this is the natural principle and the test. Local societies should 
be in earnest, and should seek members from all who believe in purity. If 
your are afraid to antagonize a paper, that fear will carry you to the broken 
bridge that terminates the road of life; and this Philosophy is not for you. 
If you prefer to wait until others originate a purist society, the result is 
the same. You are a coward. Your duty demands that you call one other 
to your aid ; each to find another ; and so on. A business man is not honest 
who advertises in a sensational paper ; a woman is not honest who either 
reads one, or admits it to her house. Kef use to trade with the one, and to 
be social with the other ; and let them know the reason why. All worthy 
people, who are not cowards, will join you. Help to build up the trade of 
good papers, and of honest tradesmen. What is sensationalism you and your 
society should judge. Patronize your weekly paper, if it is a good one; but 
insist that its columns shall be free from corrupting advertisements and 
sensational news, such as reports of crimes, scandal, court trials, horse racing, 
and the general sewerage that flows through such channels with its vile 
stench. Our great enemy is the drinking-room. It is supported by drinkers. 
There is, here, as in dealing with all sin, a natural principle underlying the 
treatment : uncover the devil. By this is meant, do not permit the enemy 
of goodness to lurk in the dark, to hide in society, or to be covered by cus- 
tom. Uncover him, and array him against the good. Open warfare is 
never dangerous. Better be in a scanty minority with God, than to belong 
to a majority sustained by the approbation of evil. Uncover the drinker. 
Keep the enemy uncovered, exposed and disgraced. This is the natural 
method of treatment. Purists' meetings should be held every week. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



420 S03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME NINE. 

CLOSE OF TOME NINE. 

In the last words of this important Tome, I wish to summarize the five 
Conclusions as follows : 

First Conclusion. — God did not create man, but is the author of the 
good that is in man ; and the Devil is the author of the evil. Man is the 
result of the conflict of good and bad. 

Second Conclusion. — Immortality is absolutely dependent upon the 
triumph of the good over the bad. 

Third Conclusion. — Man is responsible for his fate. 

Fourth Conclusion. — Moral activity in this life is the only hope of 
immortality. 

Ififth Conclusion. — All moral forces should be combined. 

I ask for the abolition of theology, for the union of all churches, the 
practice and preaching of religion, the moral education of the young, a fixed 
membership of every good person in some Purist Society, and an 
open and unceasing warfare against evil by uncovering all evil doers. I 
warn every person against the discussion of methods, and the reasons of 
action. It leads to hot-headedness, flushed faces and dissension. In the 
midst of a meeting, some man or woman, offended by a hair's breadth of 
opinion, will arise in supreme dignity and quietly leave the room, never to 
return, and possibly never to give any reason for the action. Satan seeks to 
foster discussions, in the hope that they may lead to dissensions. A person 
who is all good is all harmony, all peace. As long as DEVS are in the 
flesh, discussions and dissensions are possible. 

Teiumfh of Immortal Hope. 
The soul is the metamorphosis after death of the triumph of the good 
over the bad. This must be achieved before death, as the act follows 
immediately. Such triumph is known to all who die in hope. It is 
achieved only when hate and discord cease to dwell in ovir natures. It is 
known by the great fact which tells us that our earthly existence is 

IN HAEMONY WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF RIGHT 

AND 

AT PEACE WITH GOD. 



End of Tome Nine, 



TOME TEN. 



DESTINY. 



LESSON DCCCX. 

Outlines In the closing Tome of this Philosophy I am to consider 

the question which is the least understood of all, the most discussed, and 
the most earnestly studied. So much speculation has occupied the attention 
of contemplative teachers of all ages on this particular problem, that, if 
nothing were to be added, the time would be wasted. And, if argument 
and proof were to repose on the statements in the Bible, particularly in 
Revelations, the present work would be merely a review. The Bible reveals 
practically but two things in our destiny : first, the reward of immortality 
for the saved ; second, the destruction of hell for the unsaved. These two 
declarations as to destiny are made repeatedly with the most absolute posi- 
tiveness and the utmost plainness. Of the truth of the statements there 
can be no doubt, unless the Bible is wrong. Revelations is but a beautiful 
elaboration of the two directions of destiny, the two possibilities of fate. 
But we are to study this problem apart from the Bible, as though it were 
unknown to that Book ; through immediate processes affecting life, death 
and the evidence therewith connected. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXI. 
The Ephemeral. — I do not care for theory. If a fact is obtainable, 
I want it, no matter what time, money or effort it costs. I do not wish 
to be charged with representing any certain religion, because I have caught 
some fact belonging to that religion. For instance, I have traced certain phe- 
nomena which follow death, and find evidences, not of spiritualism, but of 
the vanishing of the human soul ; yet some thoughtless people have charged 
me with being a spiritualist. I am not. I do not believe in spiritualism. I 
have examined the whole system thoroughly, and believe it to be ephemeral; 
and I find that the members of that organization, when honest, are dupes. 
Every honest spiritualist I have ever known has gone down, down, in 
material prosperity and mental health ; and has become in advanced life a 
wreck in every sense of the word. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Pailes for Essays," at the end ol Tome Ten. 

(421) 



422 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

LESSON DCCCXII. 
Difficulties. — I place no value on theory or speculation ; therefore I 
discard the nonsense called Theosophy. It is an example of what I have 
repeatedly referred to as theology, and it claims to be nothing more. Con- 
taining no religion, and no pretext of any, but being purely an example of 
the extenuated lengths to which theology may go, it must be discarded by 
every being who hopes for salvation. Were the morality of the world de- 
pendent upon this descendant of Brahminism, the people would be about as 
far advanced in civilization as are the disciples of Brahminism in India, who 
are hopelessly barbarous. Brushing aside all temptation to speculate, I find 
many serious difficulties portending at the opening of this study. We are 
after facts, and these facts must come from our immediate knowledge. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DC(^CXIIL 
Origin of Facts. — A series of statements advanced as facts and sup- 
ported only by the declaration of the author, might be accepted by the 
thoughtful public on any theme excepting that which deals with the destiny 
of the soul. So anxious are all men to know something definite and certain 
concerning the fate of humanity, that nothing can or should be accredited 
unless the proof is offered as collateral with the statement. The same evi- 
dence as would prove the case in court is asked in such instances as this. 
We are led at once to the origin of facts. Whence come they ? They are 
either direct occurrences or deducible from direct occurrences. As both we 
shall examine them. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXIV. 
Plan of Proof. — The unusual steps necessary to arrive at evidence, 
require a mind capable of collating them, and one capable of understanding 
them. What might be a most conclusive instance to me, might not be ap- 
preciated by one whose mind did not understand the reason of its value. 
To one who had never needed gold, the metal would appear of little 
importance. Having come to a positive conclusion, through evidence of 
absolute certainty, as to what destiny awaits each and every mortal being 
after this life shall have ended, I am left to two courses ; and these I shall 
pursue. First, I shall narrate the facts as far as I know them to be true ; 



DESTINY. 423 



second, I shall endeavor to carry the pupil with me through the processes 
by which I have obtained the facts. This I do, not because I care to prove 
to others that I myself am correct ; but solely because I wish to offer the 
hope of immortality to the good, and the warning of destruction to the bad. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXV. 

Fullness of Life — By this method we shall first proceed to the nar- 
rative form. The most striking attribute of man is his fullness of life. 
This completeness makes him an entity, a unit. We know that he is but 
a mass of Atoms and molecules, yet there is an agreement of the individual 
particles by which a general intelligence rules the body. It is as though 
one man and another and another were to meet in a general assembly, others 
uniting until there was no recognition of individuals ; but a harmonious 
unanimity of the crowd in all that it did which was the general act of the 
union. 

For Essays on this subject see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXVI. 
Man's Divisions — In this world man is fourfold ; that is, he has four 
beings. His first is vegetable ; his second is physical ; his third is mental ; 
his fourth is spiritual. The latter is that form of spirit essence which is 
called the human soul. It is that which is destroyed after death by the 
force of Satan, if man remains wicked ; and it gives way to the metamor- 
phosis by which the immortal soul is evolved. The human soul is not the 
same as the metamorphosis. It is simply the essence of this life, and is not 
properly called a soul ; but as the term is so used we repeat it for convenience. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXVII. 
Man's First Division. — Any collected intelligence is soul-life in 
material shape. The automatic processes of existence, emanating from the 
medulla at the base of the brain, are functions that are found in the vegeta- 
ble world, except that in the animal kingdom they are manifest in nerve- life. 
It is the nature of their intelligence which causes them to maintain that 
entity known as vegetation. The first soul, therefore, is the commonwealth 
of universal life. It is in the cell, before it is advanced far enough to be called 
the vegetable cell, and it carries the burden of intelligence in all plant 



424 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 

growth, through to the organized mass called flesh. To the first soul belongs 
the duty of differentiation. From its several and aggregate action come all 
varieties of species, variations of kind, and modifications of growth. I can 
hardly conceive anything more interesting than the study of this universal 
soul. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXyill. 

The Universal Soul. — We find in physiology many valuable facts, 
-concerning the medulla, most of them being proved by direct experiment. 
As every spiritual essence must have a seat, we find the first soul located in 
the medulla oblongata, in animal life. That it is an active form of vegeta- 
ble intelligence, all scientists are agreed. Its source of vitality is glame, as 
in the tree or plant. Why the tree feels and perceives through the fibers of 
its roots what particles of soil that particular organism needs, cannot be 
explained except on the ground of vegetable intelligence. The root fibers 
are the nerves of digestion to the plant or tree ; and, if the universal soul 
prevailed in animal life, we should expect to find them in or near the organs 
of digestion in man. So we do. The fibers of the stomach are swayed by 
the influence of the medulla, or the seat of the vegetable soul in a human 
being. But the plant does something more than to digest or select its food 
particles. It needs air and breathes to get it. Its leaves are the best 
breathers known. But man carries his leaves within ; they are his lungs, 
and with the main trachea, or trunk, bronchii, or branches, and all the small 
boughs and twigs, the breathing system of man is a perfect tree ; the air 
cells being the leaves. The same soul-nature that controls vegetable respi- 
ration, likewise attends to animal respiration. But again the tree is fed by 
sap ; so is the body ; the sap carries food-particles, or tissue-particles to 
every part of the tree; so does the blood of man. The fact, in short, is 
this : there are three functions which make up the whole entity of plant, 
life-digestion, respiration, and circulation ; and these three functions, inher- 
ited as they are from the vegetable intelligence which the flesh possesses, 
constitute a universal relationship throughout all creation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 425 

LESSON DCCCXIX. 
Universal Relationship. — The smallest cell-life has great proportion- 
ate powers of digestion ; it circulates its protoplasm freely, even to excreting 
the unused portions ; and it breathes gases, being poisoned by some and aided 
by others. The lowest grade of life is that which possesses but the first 
soul ; and the first soul may be described as that having the three functions 
of respiration, digestion, and circulation. Man is kin to all things and 
forms that live. Nature is one universal brotherhood, through which per- 
vades this entity of intelligence, called the first soul. Where vegetation 
does not exist this force is not known, for it is absent. In the air, in water, 
in food, in blood, in tissues, it is everywhere ; and may be truly said to be 
the aggregate of vegetable intelligence. Let us look more closely into its 
nature first, and then into its habits. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. • 

LESSON DCCCXX. 

Nature of the Universal Force. — Draw in your record book a rough 
sketch of a tree or plant. Surround this by a hazy cloud, so drawn as to 
seem to dwell in it, and to emanate from it, by ever lessening density. This 
is the collective glow of the millions times millions of Atoms, held together 
in the tree life. Draw a solid ball, on a blank page. Around this ball draw 
a circle just as close as you can without touching the ball ; another around 
that, not quite so close, and others, until the page is filled by circles growing 
thinner, lighter and farther apart as they become distant from the center. 
This diagram will be referred to several times hereafter, and is called the 
soul-circles, or the law of soul-energy. Its loss of strength should be borne 
in mind, as represented by the weakening and thiuiiing of the outer circles. 
That the diagram strikes home to the mind may be proved by using it as a 
means of transference, which we shall discuss later on. If you are interested 
in phenomena, take a sheet of perfectly white paper, two feet square, draw 
the central ball in solid black, exactly one inch in diameter, then grade the 
circles in thickness or thinness as just stated, trim the paper to the outer 
circle so that the sheet itself will be round and two feet in diameter, and 
hang it on a sheet of black cambric eight feet square, the lower part touch- 
ing the floor. This is called the proportion of twenty-fourths. The center 



426 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



of the diagram will be four feet from the floor. Sit in such a position that 
the light will be overhead, or to the left side. Look at the central ball for 
eight minutes as steadily as possible, then dim the light one-half ; the air 
will begin to be full of the outer circles which would have belonged to the 
diagram, had you made it as large as the room. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXI. 
The Receiver Experiment. — That this diminishing circle strength is 
in harmony with your own soul, may be seen by, diminishing the light 
another half, or one-fourth of the original light, after a steady watchfulness 
of eight minutes. In this one-fourth light look for eight minutes more, or 
twenty-four in all, and dim the light to one-half of the fourth, or one-eighth 
of the original full light. If no thought or no interruption has broken the 
intentnessof your experiment, you will find the air full of a general Atomic- 
glow, or strange light. That this peculiar effect is not due to the constitu- 
tion, temperament, or gift of any body, may be easily shown by the fact that 
every person, old, young, man, woman, or child, will easily experience the 
same results. The glow is exceedingly fine, but perfectly distinct. That it 
belongs to the air is proved by having a glass receiver in the room from 
which the air has been exhausted ; the vacuum is clearly distinguished as 
lacking this glow. The value of experiments with the soul-circles will be 
seen later on. I use the word soul as implying force, energy, or intelligence; 
not as referring to the immortal part. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXII. 
Union of Intelligence. — Having examined the nature of the universal 
soul, we will consider its habits. Its central energy is co-existent with the 
thing that lives, and it weakens as it leaves it. It seems to be a diffused 
thought force, not capable of reasoning but of knowing. This knowledge 
is so exact that it rarely ever makes a mistake or varies from its purpose. 
Hence come the certainties of reproduction in the preservation of its kind. 
Thus the soul-intelligence of the apple-tree is locked up in each cell 
of the tree itself. Plant it on most any root by the process of budding, and 
it will continue as the same intelligence, selecting the exact food particles 
from the ground that are needed to preserve the kind, and arranging them in 



DESTIXr. 427 

the necessary manner. But let the seed of the apple be the result of the 
flower impregnated from another variety of apple, and the two kinds of 
trees will be represented in a union of their intelligences; causing a variation 
from the original stock ; and this union of thought or knowledge will work 
in harmony to the end of time to preserve that stock, until another mixture 
comes in. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXIII. 

Growth-Variation The rose is but the result of the intelligence 

behind its life, working to maintain it. Put in the ground two stems or two 
seeds, one of the rose, and one of the blackberry. They will both thrive in 
the same soil, but the separate intelligence of each, even if they were tied 
together in one confined cube of earth, would draw certain particles of food 
and arrange them in their certain ways, until the two distinct plants had 
been developed. This intelligence is the aggregation of the pul of Atoms, 
held together by a harmony of purposes. The whole secret is explained by 
the pul of a single Atom. It is a creature of purpose, from which it never 
strays. The first soul is the larger collection of purpose. It is not only 
universal, but it is variable without limit. It could, should it choose, create 
any shape, form, color, force, habit, or energy it wished; and it has wished 
to create an endless variety of life. To it we owe all diversity, all size, all 
shape, all kinds, classes, species, types and modifications. An energy of this 
kind is worth observing, and it may be easily observed. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

* t 

LESSON DCCCXXIV. 

Origin of the Soul — Still referring to the medulla-oblongata, or the 
seat of the vegetable part of man, as the centrality of the first soul ; and not 
intending to claim that this energy is the immortal part, let us examine 
further into its history. That it came to the earth from the sun is well 
settled; that it represents the conflict of the great battle going on in the sun, 
is undoubtedly true ; what the powers are that are beyond that conflict, we 
shall study a few pages later on. The nature of this universal soul is the 
reproduction of the nature beyond the sun's conflict ; and from it we get a 
key to the history of the embattled forces. This we shall consider shortly. 



428 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

Confining ourselves to this planet, we find the universal soul is seeking union 
and the strength that this union brings. Here is a ray of light. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXy. 
Soul-Union. — Fire is the excessive activity of molecules and Atoms, 
and represents motion and disintegration. The motion causes unrest, dis- 
cord and separation of the particles which constitute the whole. It is chaos 
of the most chaotic kind. Many tribes believe that fire is the work of the 
devil. The Mongolian races, almost as a whole, believe that fire is a conflict 
of God and the devil. We believe that it is a conflict of the Atomic sub- 
stance of God, sent out to the very frontiers of the sky to meet the Atomic 
substance of the devil. Thus the instinct of the semi-savage may/eeZ that 
which civilization knows to be true. In the sun we find the only Atomic 
conflict, from which the parties involved seek to escape and carry on the war 
under circumstances permitting greater deliberation. All the while these 
Atoms, knowing the value of union, are endeavoring to form larger relations. 
Hence molecules, masses, structures, vegetation and man. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXVI. 

Limit of Life In this union the original law of their being is 

clearly exemplified. The father of the Ang- Atoms, is God ; of the Dev- 
Atoms, is Satan. The union of these infinitessimal particles is a reproduc- 
tion of their paternity. Thus the ultimate combination of molecules, cells 
and flesh tends always toward the shape that is stamped on the intelligence 
of the paternity. As the seed of the rose finds its limits in producing 
another plant whose shape and flower are like the paternal shape and flower, 
so the extreme goal of creative intelligence — man — is only the limit of its 
life, — God. And as the rose is the metamorphosis of the sweeter life in the 
plant, so the beautiful soul, cast for immortality, is the metamorphosis of 
the human body. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXVII. 
Origin of Life. — The Atoms, when free from the more terrible conflict 
that rages in the sun, set about establishing their affinities. The Ang-Atoms 
have an aversion for their enemies who seem to cling to them under all 



DESTINY. 429 



circumstances; but they free themselves somewhat as they become human 
food. The poisonous vegetation is Dev-growth; but the vegetable food that 
supports the life of man is nearly free from the enemy. In the flesh of 
animals the Dev- Atoms find opportunities of attacking life; and who ever 
eats the flesh becomes more or less the victim of the enemy. Young cats 
and even children fed on meat, become possessed of certain influences, 
called fits, spasms, paroxysms, or convulsions. A kitten fed on raw meat is 
apt to die in a wild fit. Vegetation does nothing like this. He who would 
be free from the contamination of Devs should let meat and alcohol alone; 
and his life will be sweeter, his habits cleaner, and his soul purer. How- 
ever this union goes on, and at last when man is at his best, he approaches 
the shape and look of that creative source that sent forth these Atoms into 
space, — God. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXVJII. 
Shape of the Devil. — But Satan must resemble God, or else the 
Atomic structure of man is, by a large proportion, of the Ang-division. 
Many men are thoroughly the offspring of the devil, and their faces are 
hideous. Nearest to this face and eye, closest to the criminal gaze of a 
lecherous soul, is the glare of a snake. Either by photographs for exactness, 
or by the memory of the eye, compare the glance of a hell-locked gambler, 
or a gossiping woman who feeds on purity of character, with the lurking 
dead, stare of a venomous reptile ; and the resemblances are so strong that 
one may be interchangeable with the other. I regard the shape of man as 
God-like; and do not belive that the cradle held the criminal. The hideous 
countenance of maturity is the result of after development. The venom of 
the serpent is pure Dev- matter, composed of the poisons sucked from earth 
and insects. The conclusion seems warranted that the devil, in his earthly 
guise, is a snake; and that the reptiles seen by the brain of a drunken man 
concur in proving that alcohol is the essence of Satan. The instinctive 
theology taught in the Hebrew tradition in Genesis, representing the devil 
as a serpent, gives us a triple proof of the nature and form of the great 
enemy of God, whose purpose seems to be to destroy every soul that he 
may. Thus, whichever way we turn, the proofs accumulate in support of 
our Philosophy. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



430 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



LESSON DCCCXXIX. 
Death of Animals. — This first soul, or the universal intelligence of 
life, is in concentrated form in every tree, or plant, or life. To test its 
nature, there are several experiments open to all persons. One of very- 
common occurrence is known to physicians generally, for they advise it 
strongly to patients of low vitality. Go to any slaughter-house and stand 
by an animal just as he is killed. The Soul-circles, which represent the 
vegetable vitality, will suddenly spread and dissipate in all directions; their 
movement being felt in slight degree by any person, and in very marked 
degree by one who has educated his own vital faculties to the sensitive point 
by practicing the exercise of the Diagram of the Soul-circles. Butchers 
imbibe a large share of this vitality, by being near dying animals. The 
flesh and blood are charged with it, especially if immediately cut apart. 
There are thousands of patients, who drink the warm blood of cattle, for 
its vitality. But if an animal dies of a lingering disease, its vitality is 
oozing away constantly; and the flesh of any animal that died a natural 
death is not only lacking in vitality, but is utterly unfit for use. All these 
facts are of common knowledge. 

For Essays on. this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXX. 
Persons who Differ. — Try the experiment with the diagram of the 
circles for a few weeks, until the vital intelligence is very sensitive to all 
influences ; in the meantine conserving all the health of the body, and 
avoiding meat, but eating plenty of whole wheat. At no time sleep less 
than six hours in the twenty- four, nor more than eight ; the latter being 
the natural division of the vital day. It will be remembered that we were 
dealing in twenty-fourths ; and that in our earlier pages, we found that 
one-third of the day, or eight hours, was the natural division for sleep. 
The nearer we comply with the law of twenty-four and of eight, the more 
closely we may study our natures. After a few weeks of experiment, bring 
two persons into the room, whose vitality seems to be widely variant ; that 
is one who is sickly, and one who is vigorous. The latter is full of glame, 
the former lacks it. When you come to the third watching for eight 
minutes, and the light is diminished to an eighth, you will see the vital 
circles about the bodies of the two persons; and, having brought two 



DESTINY. 431 



who are not of like vitality, the difference will be so apparent as to 
alarm you. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Pailes for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXI. 
Glame. — The law of glanie is not only seen in its operation, but its 
existence is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. Glame is the synonym 
of vitality, and it is seen as a phospho-electrical emanation like a cloud from 
the body of a healthy person. Probably everybody has felt the vitality of 
a strongly magnetic man by merely standing in his presence. This force 
consists of strong circles with larger centre, and greater diameter; it reaches 
a long way. All persons within the circle influence give up their own 
vitality for the time, and live in the strength of the stronger. It can be 
broken only by the use of magnetic lines, which are simply emanations of 
will-power urged to certain ends. But one may increase the vitality or 
glame, by certain exercises, which collect the phospho-electrical force from 
the air. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXII. 
Increase of Glame — So simple a work as the General Membership 
Book of the Ralston Health Club contains truths and exercises of the most 
tremendous value. It is there said the glame is in the air. That this is 
true we can see in the dim pul-glow of our own senses. It is said that a 
certain closing of the hand, after an inhalation of pure air, on which 
the sun has recently shone, will, if accompanied by slight energy of the 
will-power, result in the lungs and blood absorbing this glame. The exer- 
cise is founded on the absolute truths of Nature, and is the strongest act of 
the human body. That we live in the midst of this glame or vital, uni- 
versal energy, I have seen hundreds of times, and all may see who will. 
That the exercise causes the body to absorb the vitality is seen by the 
additional circle-power. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXIII. 
How Vegetation Dies. — No matter how complete a life may seem in 
its shape and functions, or how favorable may be the opportunities for 
thriving, if the vitality gets low the result is death. The soul of the tree, 



432 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

or plant, or flower, leaves it, as the vapor leaves the pond ; it dissipates, 
weakens, and is gone. With vegetable man it is the same. It was the first 
of life, and is the last to go. The mind may give way, but the medulla 
keeps up respiration, circulation and digestion. The muscles and nerves of 
the muscles may be stopped by paralysis, but the medulla is in charge ; it will 
keep up the vegetable life of the idiot and the paralytic, with the same per- 
fect regularity of habits that is seen in any living body. When the medulla 
stops the heart, all is over. Man, therefore, is in the power of his first 
soul ; his mighty brain cannot exist of itself, as the medulla can ; and the 
muscular system plays an inferior part to this species of vegetation. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Kules for Essays," at tlie end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXIV. 

Inclusion. — We have seen that there is a universal soul, that prevails 
wherever there is life, — in cell, plant, animal and man. We have also seen 
that man includes this together with three other attributes. Leaving that 
which is solely vegetable, and universal, for one addition, we find the second 
soul. This is always added to the first. Thus an animal may be of so low 
an order as to have no brain stronger than the cerebellum, but it will also 
have a medulla. To understand the doctrine of inclusion let us examine it. 
That life which is of medulla energy (the term is merely explanatory, as 
plant life has no medulla, but merely the energy known by that term), is 
vegetable ; that life which has medulla energy and cerebellum energy, is of 
the lowest order of the animal kingdom ; that life which has medulla energy, 
cerebellum energy and cerebrum energy, is of the highest order of the ani- 
mal kingdom ; and that life which has medulla energy, cerebellum energy, 
cerebrum energy and mind energy, is a human being. This is the law of 
inclusion : the greater includes the less, with the universal soul as the under- 
lying life of all. In the law of inclusion we see the remarkable fact that 
the greater is dependent upon the less, and cannot exist without it, while 
the less may in every instance, exist without the greater. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXV. 

Dependence Thus any life which is ruled by the medulla energy 

may thrive of itself, as the plant and tree ; but it has no power of self- 
protection. Believing that vegetation is nearest to God-life, and reaches the 



DESTINY. 433 



essence of divinity through its climax of growth, — the flower ; and know- 
ing that only in flesh do the Dev-bacteria thrive, 1 draw the lesson that God is 
peace ; that divine existence is harmony ; that self-protection is not provided 
because it is not needed in the great hereafter. Activity implies attack and 
defense, and muscular growth. Add this function to any vegetation, and 
the lowest forms of the animal kingdom are the result; and, in the brain of 
man, it is called the cerebellum or little brain. It is, in the order of intel- 
ligence, an advance in the scale of being, but the greater, which includes the 
less, is dependent upon it. Man may live after he is paralyzed, but not 
after his heart ceases to beat 

For Essays on this suljject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXVI. 
Man's Second Division. — If the first soul is vegetable, and is 
centered in the medulla ; the second soul is physical, and is centered in the 
cerebellum. The medulla is the upper portion of the spinal column; the 
cerebellum is the under part of the brain at the back and base of the head ; 
and is above the medulla. All physiologists are agreed that the latter con- 
trols the system of respiration, circulation and digestion ; and that the cere- 
bellum controls all the voluntary muscles. The action of the diaphragm in 
its respiratory movements, is said to be muscular, but of the involuntary 
order ; so the heart and the stomach are said to be representatives of invol- 
untary muscular activity. They are involuntary because the intelligence of 
the medulla directs them, and leaves them no choice of action. On the 
other hand, the cerebellum is the seat of the intelligent control of all the 
muscles through the motor nerves. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXVII. 
Low Animal Order. — A thing that lives and moves must be, at least, 
endowed with a medulla and cerebellum. All the scope of its life is nar- 
rowed by these two energies ; and we see myriad illustrations of this low 
order. The principle is discerned in higher animals and in man. A human 
being, whose cerebellum is of large comparative growth, is beastly in looks 
and nature. The receding forehead and increasing pof-terior skull are sure 
indications of animalism, and generally of a very low order when found in a 
human species. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays, " at the end of Tome Ten. 
28 



434 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



LESSON DCCCXXXVIII. 
Man's Third Division. — Animals that posses a cerebrum rise at once 
out of the lowest order, and are endowed with the faculty of great improve- 
ment. Owing to the variations of shape, it is difficult to class the brain 
material throughout all animal life; but a close examination of the habits- 
of any specimen will quickly determine its brain endowments, of which a 
certain degree of proof is found in the brain itself. In man and in all 
highly endowed animals the divisions of medulla-oblongata, cerebellum, and 
cerebrum is as marked as if they were separate bodies. This third soul is 
partly a reasoning, and partly an intelligent force. It directs the move- 
ments of the muscles for an intelligent separable purpose, while the cere- 
bellum seems to co-ordinate them as one, and cause the body to have a 
general activity, which in the lowest life is slow and sluggish. In proportion 
as the cerebrum is developed, the powers of educating of training the intelli- 
gent action of the muscles is increased. Thus a cub, a kitten, or the young 
of any animal, wild or tame, will play, and is more or less tractable ; while 
those that lack cerebrum energy are incapable of movement, except as an 
entity, caused by the co-ordinating influence of the cerebellum. So human 
beings, who are not very intelligent, become unusually skilled in their 
motions through the instinctive intelligence of the inferior brain, which 
develops skill by the law of habit. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," kt the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXXXIX. 

The Force of the Physical. — As symbols are useful to excite the 
mind, and as certain lines excite certain functions, we will, for convenience 
of terms and for nearness of approach to the fact itself, adopt the square as 
the diagram to represent the second soul. Draw on a square white sheet of 
paper or cloth, a small black square one inch in size. Surround this by a 
series of lines, representing hollow squares, each diminishing in thickness, 
and distance, as it departs from the center. I have made many curious 
experiments with this diagram. One of the simplest is to call in a laborer, 
and let him look at a series of diagrams, one of the circle, one of the square, 
one of the star and one of the chain. He will choose the peculiar vanishing 
effect of the square. It accords with the superabundance of his physical 



DESTINY. 435 



force. So, at a theatre, he will be most impressed with the hard action of 
the clog dancer, than with the fine curves of the dainty movements exhibited 
by one who appeals to a different taste. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXL. 

The Force of the Mental. — The mind in control, constructs a being 
quite different from that made by the influences of the physical brain. The 
latter is in straight lines, as in all physical action and all mechanical force. 
The cannon-ball is shot, the blow is struck from a straight line originat- 
ing movement. But Nature abhors straight lines, and will not use them. 
Left to herself, she builds curves. All her orbs are round, all their orbits 
some form of a circle or curve. So she throws the spent cannon-ball into a 
parabola, and destroys the line made by man. All flowers, all contour of 
the human body represent the varying shapes of some curve. Nothing 
made by Nature has a straight line. That is evolved from the animal 
energy of the physical brain ; and for that reason the squares are merely 
combinations of straight lines. Hence the effect our soul-squares have on 
the muscular man. The mind is more intricate. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Pailes for Essays," at tlie end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXLI. 

Thinking Energy. — In arriving at conclusions regarding a force, 
great care should be taken to study it from its various bearings; and the 
student should not confound one standpoint with another. Thus the 
Atomic shape might be quite different from the molecular shape, and yet 
both might be true. To a thoughtless student, or to one who only reads a 
book once, many inconsistences of statement or description might seemingly 
arise. It is necessary to read every word, and to re-read an important work 
several times, in order to know from what standpoint the subject may be 
studied. The collective mind is an energy of quite a different kind from 
the Atoms and molecules that compose it. It is a larger intelligence and 
of a higher order of harmony. Its two great attributes, are intensity and 
diff'usion. But, before we examine these, let us find the diagram that shall 
stand as the symbol. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



436 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME lEN. 

LESSON DCCCXLII. 

The Soul There are no longer eighths, as in the vegetable soul ; 

nor the ultimate three-eights, or twenty-four. The law of five prevails, 
and is the symbol of the mind. The selection of any number for merely 
symbolic use would be childish. The value of the five is tested by its 
effect on the mind which uses it; and there must be some reason for such 
effect. I will speak of both. In the first place, the immortal being is 
composed of five energies; and of these the mind is the central force; it is 
midway the extremes; it is the middle of the five, both in the scale of being 
and by the logical order of life's procession. My use of the word soul as 
applying to energy may be objected to as confusing ; but I have explained 
that. No one will be lead to believe that when I speak of a tree or flower 
as having a first soul, that I mean the same or anything like the human or 
the immortal part of life. I simply find that all creation is of one Creator, 
and necessarily related. There are five orders of human experience; and, 
for convenience, I call them the five souls ; four only belonging to earthly 
existence. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXLIII. 

The Center of Life. — The mind being the central experience of a 
human being, I call it the third soul ; and, except as to mere names (which 
may be varied at will and applied to any and everything, so long as the 
meaning is clear), all persons will agree with this five-part arrangement. 
It is apparent that the first is automatic life, or vegetable energy; that the 
second is physical life ; that the third is mental life ; that the fourth is 
moral life ; and the fifth is spiritual life. Man's five souls are, therefore, 
as follows: first, the vegetable soul; second, the physical soul; third, the 
mental soul ; fourth, the human soul ; fifth, the immortal soul. To study 
the destiny of each, it is necessary to know them, their habits here, and 
the prospect of a hereafter as indicated by the laws of the present. In 
this order of five, the mind is always in the center, no matter how we may 
look at it. It is higher than the vegetable and physical, and is lower than 
the human and spiritual. Of course this holds true only in a full rounded 
human creation ; for in beasts the mental is at the top ; it is the last and 



DESTINY. 437 



ultimate goal of the merely animal creation. No one can deny that the 
beast has a cerebrum and an intelligent mind ; but he is not human. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXLIV. 
The Merely Human. — In the beast the mind, or third-soul, is the 
ultimatum. It is the end-all, not being human, a beast cannot feel ; and 
being unable to feel, he cannot think ; therefore he is not a reasoning being. 
By feeling we mean to experience emotions. In the intricacy of inter-rela- 
tionship between the medulla, the diagram and the cerebrum, the sympathy 
of emotional action should occasionally be seen over-lapping the species ; so 
some animals give a show of feeling, but not of the human order, though it 
often touches the great cord of humanity. A beast is a three-part being. 
Man is either a four-part, or a five-part being. If only a four-part, he has 
a human soul, but not a spiritual soul. That there are persons who are 
merely human, there can be no doubt, and the Bible teaches immortality only 
to the good. 

For Essays on this suhject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXLV. 

Destiny of the Races — This Philosophy is of and for the Caucasians; 
and, in the study of destiny, time and space permit only the opportunity to 
discuss the future of every man, woman and child who belongs to this race. 
That some who think before they deliberate will charge me with a cruel 
creed, because I declare that the Caucasians are the ultimate race of earth. I 
do not doubt ; but the investigator has no right to be moved by careless con- 
clusions. If one chooses to place implicit credence in the Bible (and such 
faith is noble), let him explain Cain's going into another land to get a wife, 
unless the Caucasians were God's chosen race. However, I have a chain of 
proofs, involving facts of indisputable strength which I shall, at my leisure, 
collect together in one large volume, and probably publish ; in which case 
it will be presented to the owner of this Philosophy. What I now intend to 
say is, that the anti-racials are human beings merely ; and are four-part cre- 
ations. Their human soul is the ultimate attribute of their existence ; and, 
when death comes, it ends all. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



438 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

LESSON DCCCXLYI. 
Diffusion. — A negro, Mongolian, or other anti-racial, who dies, gives 
up his four-part existence. He is as in sleep, unconscious. Death brings a 
distinct relief to his warring nature, for it gives him oblivion. The essence 
of his vitality does not linger (except in very rare cases), but dissipates, dif- 
fuses, and is lost. So with all human beings, or those who are merely 
human. The proofs that I shall adduce in this Tome will relate only to the 
discordant lives of Caucasians, and not include the destiny of anti-racials. I 
will say here that I do not believe that all human beings are saved to become 
immortal. If God inspired the Bible it is time the words so plainly uttered 
should be accepted. Here is the newspaper report of the words of a Meth- 
odist Bishop, " I do not want to go to Heaven if God is to exclude any man 
or woman that lives, I care not how ignorant or how filthy they are in their 
souls, or whether they are cannibals, fetich- worshippers, or barbarians, if 
God permitted them to come into being they should share the blessings of 
immortal life." Probably the report was erroneous ; but I have heard such 
clap-trap from preachers who hope to win the applause of the wicked. The 
Bible says one thing more than another, and repeats it in a thousand ways, 
that only the saved shall inherit immortal life. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXLVII. 
Re -incarnation. — When the soul leaves the body of any anti-racial 
or Caucasian, whose existence is four-part only, it remains on the earth, until 
it may be re-absorbed in Atoms and molecules, and become re-habilitated in 
other beings. This is diffusion, and is no more a- re-incarnation than is the 
substance of the human body. All flesh disintegrates after death and dif- 
fuses through all nature ; in the air, water and soil ; and, through the origi- 
nal vegetable process, it again enters the flesh state. But it might and prob- 
ably does re-appear in a million beings. This is all there is of re-incarna- 
tion ; unless the direct will of God decrees otherwise. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten, 

LESSON DCCCXLVIII. 
Beliefs. — All forms of tribal religion, suited of course to the exact 
degree of intelligence in each tribe, are instinctively correct in one or more 
matters. Thus, among all anti-racials is some belief in the passing of the 



DESTINY. 439 



soul into other forms of life. One believes in transmigration, pure and 
simple ; and so strange a notion as this may be accounted for on the instinct- 
ive theory that the actual occurrence often inspires a subtle knowledge of 
itself. This is universally true. The anti-racials who believe in re-incar- 
nation are correct as far as soul-di£fusion after death supports the fact. Of 
this we shall see much more. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXLIX. 
The Five Points. — The law of five is an interesting study. Man, 
when perfect in a creative sense, is of five parts, of which the mind is the 
center. For him the five-pointed star is the symbol. There are five races 
on earth. Every man has five passions, each two-sided; and no person has 
been able to reduce them to less, or increase them to more. They are five. 
Man has five divisions of his hand, each of which serves a distinct act of 
usefulness. He has five senses. In counting he uses the two fives on his 
hands as the basis of all enumeration. Thus tens and ten times ten form the 
numerical tables of the civilized world ; and five is the most convenient 
mental conception of a ready sum, as the five cent piece, the five dollar bill, 
the five franc piece, the five lira, the five pound note, and others. The 
smallest English bill is five pound. These examples count for but little, as 
compared with the five parts of life, as well as the five passions, and the five 
senses. Yet it is not altogether for this reason that we have selected the five 
pointed star as the symbol of the mental soul. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCL. 
The Frontiers of Space. — The sky is so large to us that we cannot 
realize its size. The small bacteria who dwells by the million in a single 
drop of water might consider the drop large; and the earth could not be 
comprehended by him. So man, on this little globule called the planet, 
figures the mean distance of the sun as 92,500,000 miles; and is lost in his 
efforts to measure the nearest star beyond. Yet the stars are all seen in 
Heaven. As the inhabitants of that glorious realm look off across the sky 
they behold all the lights that we behold. We see not Heaven; but we see 
the stars that are seen in Heaven. They connect us in their way with the 
dominion whose outer courts they represent. A star is a light, a guiding 



440 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 



light. The mind is a guiding light. It is a star whose brightness shines 
between the earth and immortality, and whose intelligence may light the 
path that leads to Heaven. The stars above are great globes. The mind is 
a globe of light, a star in its functions, and is the midway glory in the scale 
of man's five-part life. For this reason we adopt the star as the symbol of 
the mind; and yet there is a stronger reason to be told. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLI. 
The Mental Diagram. — Take a piece of yellow cloth, and cut out a 
five-pointed star, twenty-four inches from tip to tip; allowing the center to 
present the appearance of a globe. Sew the edges so as to preserve a smooth 
line, free from fringing ; then attach it to the centre of a light blue sheet, 
eight feet square ; and place it against the wall. The yellow may represent 
the sun, and the blue the sky. Watch it, in a full light, for eight minutes, 
then dim the light one-half; again watch it for eight minutes, then dim 
another half, being one-fourth of the original ; again watch it for eight 
minutes, and dim to an eighth light. At each stage there will appear 
certain phenomena, which you are to explain, if you will, in essays sent to 
me. If you add to this experiment a strongly magnetic brain, you will set 
up a pul-glow that is most brilliant. In this pul-glow you will be able to 
do what the disordered brain of a feverish person always succeeds in doing. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLII. 
Illusions. — Can you tell me why the victim of delirium tremens sees 
snakes, and a variety of forms, some large enough to fill a room? Or why 
a fevered brain, as in typhoid, will see the most wonderful illusions? 
Or why a mad brain is the seat of demons or extra-physical forms? Or 
why, in the embrace of death, the last gaze may sometimes rest on a hitherto 
vinknown shape. Where are these illusions? They are not nothing. There 
can be no such thing as something originating from nothing. To simply say 
that it is merely the imagination of a sick brain is childishly absurd, even 
for a thoughtless person. What creative faculties have been bestowed upon 
such a deficient brain that it is able to trick Nature? If the great mother 
of us all is unable to make something where there is nothing, how do you 
suppose an individual can do it ? But you say the snakes are not real. 



DESTINY. 4:41 



Then he does not see any. Then the bacteria revealed by the microscope 
are not real. Then the revelations of any magnifying lens are simply the 
imagination of a something or nothing, — an indefinite unknown. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLIII. 
Brain Reality. — The truth is plain enough to go without stating. 
The brain of every human being is capable of becoming an enormous 
magnifying glass; and an examination of its structure proves this. Its 
increase of vision, even under the most trivial excitement, is out of all 
proportion to the expected ratio. The reason for this is not hard to under- 
stand if we examine the optic nerve. Man, in his normal mental state, 
would be in misery, if he were to see all that the air and ether contain. 
Providence has been kind to him, at least in this regard. But sickness of 
the brain opens up an avenue of new suggestion. 

For Essays on this subject, see '• Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLIV. 
Microscopic Brain-power. — I have, on previous pages, referred to 
an illness, nigh unto death, which occurred when I was about twelve years 
of age. Like hundreds of thousands of others, I had typhomania, or mental 
delusions. Young as I was I knew that the distinct things seen by my 
brain were illusions only in the sense that others could not see what I 
beheld; but they did not have my brain for their microscope. Admitting 
that the fevered blood pours into the brain, and in and around the optic 
nerve, exciting, stretching and enlarging it by the process known as inflam- 
mation, we have only to imagine what must be the tissue irritation in each 
microscopical cell-structure of the nerves of vision. In the best blood of 
ordinary flesh are specimens of life that are unusual to engage. The blood 
is active in sickness, even fevered and excited. Around in the atmosphere 
are Atoms and molecules of uncounted numbers. When the brain sees the 
so-called illusions, it does not see the room or the things and people in the 
room ; for the reason that it is gazing through its magnifying function, so 
peculiar to disease, and is capable of beholding only things of microscopic 
size. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



442 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

LESSON DCCCLV. 
Revelations — A boy of twelve cannot, even in typhomania, be carried 
into a new world of vegetation and animal life without desiring to get at 
the cause. I am sure that I was not in my right mind, that is, I was not 
as I usually or normally was. I was the victim of illusions ; of this there 
can be no doubt; nor do I pretend to have been in mental health. But 
when the brain is so far over-excited as to see the elemental Atoms of a ray 
of sunlight, the combinations of all sorts of Atomic and molecular growth, 
to see foliage, flowers, and verdure altogether too magnificent to be described, 
and to find the bacterial basis of what has since been proved to be a true 
science, the idea of illusion is explained only on the ground that a disordered 
brain may become an enormous magnifying agency. And this fact has been 
proved in many ways by others. All careful investigators accept it as the 
only explanation of what is otherwise an absurdity. That there is beauty 
in lesser life is easily seen. The most gorgeously attired woman is put to 
shame by any one of the thousands of insects which escape the ordinary 
vision. I sometimes wonder why so much of splendor is lost to us, if this 
smaller life was created for us. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLVI. 
Mental Colors. — It being true that an excited brain is capable of a 
microscopic vision, I learned to believe that such a power could be stimulated 
and yet not cause the brain injury. I knew that people, under nervous 
excitements, often saw images, and that they could develop the power to a 
most remarkable degree, during the frenzy of a nervous tension, as in 
spiritualists' seances ; and I reasoned that this ought to be done by some 
normal process, and for the good of scientific research, without material 
injury to the brain tissues. The theory was plain enough. It was and is 
clearly philosophical and logical. But how couJd a person bring a gentle 
strain to bear upon the nerves of sight, so as to excite and enlarge their 
tissues. There are many ways, of which the yellow star and blue back- 
ground is the most effective and general. The brain is exceedingly agitated 
by these colors ; but its microscopic power is proportioned to its ability to 
excite pul-glow, otherwise known as magnetism. For this reason the two 
books on magnetism have been used to lead up to this study. It is only the 



DESTINY. 443 



experimental side. Many may not care to risk the eyes, or even to put to 
the test a theory that is acceptable on its face. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLVII. 
Abnormal Perception. — The mind is either normal or excited. When 
normal it is supposed to use only its fine senses as a means of communication 
with other people. If their thoughts are to be known to us they must tell 
them either by the voice, by action of the body, or by message, employing 
some form of writing. A mind is said to be abnormal when it perceives the 
thoughts or acts of another by any process that does not use the senses. 
But this claim is worth examining. Assuming from this standpoint that all 
perception is abnormal, unless it is usual, we will divide it into two parts . 
first, microscopic enlargement; second, vibratory intensity. The former we 
have discussed and will leave for a while. The latter has given rise to an 
unusual amount of scientific research, and psychical societies have been 
organized for the purpose of collecting reliable evidence of the phenomena. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLVIII. 
Intense Mentality. — In the first place, let us disabuse the mind of 
the notion that the mental condition is necessarily abnormal because it is 
able to perceive without seeing or hearing. If a person is speaking to one 
who is bright and quick, the thought will be received long before the words 
are all spoken. If Mr. A. meets B. and says, "Why, my dear Mr. B., I 

am ," it is not a difficult matter for B. to finish the sentence. And, 

in complicated statements, many a quick mind has helped the speaker to 
find the word and even the thought which is needed. But more than this is 
true. Telepathy is necessary in every instance when spoken or written 
thoughts are received by another. Thus you, who read these sentences, 
must have the power of telepathy to some degree, or you would not under- 
stand these things. You may prove this a hundred times a day, even in the 
simplest matters. A letter from one whom you wish to hear from is the 
easiest of all things to read ; yet some of its contents may not be perceived 
until after a second reading. Many people read page after page of a book 
without perceiving the thoughts. So in conversation, telepathy is necessary, 
or the speaker must repeat his remarks frequently. Nothing is more com- 



444 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

mon in life than the hearing, but not perceiving, a spoken thought. Thus two 
persons, who are not specially interested in each other's remarks, will talk, 
and each say '^'What?" a hundred times an hour; whereas, if the mind is 
keen in interest, its intensity will grasp the slightest thought and word. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLIX. 
Catching Thoughts. — Lawyers, whose interest in a case on trial is 
very intense, and whose judgment is not stupid, know what questions to put 
to witnesses on cross-examination in order to detect truth and falsehood. 
Having an acquaintance with many advocates whose so-called intuitive 
powers in this direction are means of great success in unearthing perjury, 1 
have found that an honest desire to get at the truth, coupled with an intense 
interest in the result, will create telepathy in the legal mind in a degree 
greater than usual. But honesty, I am sorry to say, is not required between 
two criminals ; and telepathy may be the result of years of criminal train- 
ing. A successful card player knows the mind of an amateur, almost as an 
open book. A detective, to be successful, must be a telepathist. So 
auctioneers and tricky tradesmen are enabled to be successful in raising their 
prices when they read the desire for the goods in the mind of the purchaser. 
These are examples of intense telepathy. But all persons possess the faculty 
in some degree, or they would not understand a spoken or written word. 
The eye is one degree removed from the brain in the exercise of the art ; and 
the ear is two degrees removed. A speaker who holds the eye of his auditor 
is able to succeed in making his meaning clearer than one who reaches him 
only through the ear. It is a hard strain to listen and to understand, with 
no other aid. A test of the strain of ordinary telepathy is found in church 
during a sermon. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLX. 
Organized Science. — The word telepathy strictly means distant feel- 
ing ; or the recognition of thought by a sympathetic process, without the use 
of the ordinary channels of sensation. While we claim that this mental 
sympathy is necessary even to the understanding of a very ordinary remark, 
yet so many instances of unusual mental intensity have come to the notice of 
scientists, that they have deemed it necessary to organize special societies of 



DESTINY. 446 



psychical research in order to distinguish between the supposed and the real 
exhibition of this power. Many investigators of high social and scientific 
character had convinced themselves of this phenomenal keenness of mind ; 
but no serious and organized attempt at investigation was made until, in 
1882, the Society for Psychical Research was founded in London, under the 
presidency of Professor Henry Sidgwick. He and his colleagues were the 
pioneers in the research, and their example has been widely followed. Two 
years later an American society under the same title (now a flourishing 
branch of the English society) was founded in Boston ; and there are at the 
present time societies with similiar objects, at Berlin, Munich, Stockholm 
and elsewhere. Moreover, the Societe de Psychologic Physiologique, which 
was founded in Paris, under the presidency of M. Charcot, in 1885, has 
devoted much attention to some forms of telepathy. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXI. 
Normal Transference. — It was Professor Barrett, of the Royal Col- 
lege of Science, Dublin, who, in a paper read before the British Association 
at Glasgow in 1876, first isolated the phenomenon from its somewhat dubious 
surroundings, and drew public attention to its importance. Up to that time 
*' community of sensation " or thought-transference seems to have been 
known only as a rare and fitful accompaniment of the hypnotic trance. 
But in the course of the correspondence arising out of his paper, Professor 
Barrett learnt of several instances where similar phenomena had been ob- 
served in the waking state. The Willing game was just then coming into 
fashion, and cases had been observed in which the thing willed had been 
performed without contact between the performer and the person willing, and 
apparently without the possibility of any normal means of communication 
between them. Later, in the years 1881-82, a long series of experiments, 
in which Professor Sidgwick, the late Professor Balfour Stewart, the late 
Edmund Gurney, Mr. F. W. H. Myers and others joined with Professor 
Barrett, seemed to establish the possibility of a new mode of communica- 
tion. And these earlier results have been confirmed by further experiments 
continued down to the present time by many observers, not only in England, 
but in this country, and in every part of the civilized globe. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



446 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

LESSON DCCCLXII. 

Normal Experiments The exceedingly sensitive condition of the 

brain of a person in the hypnotic state has made thought-transference very 
easy. We shall explain the double process later on. But science found 
that fifteen per cent, of all the people (according to the average report of 
these societies), are endowed with the ability to receive the thoughts of 
others by telepathy. The English Society for Psychical Research instituted 
so many experiments that it has required volumes to report them. They 
found that sounds, numbers, visual images, smell, taste and pain, as well as 
emotions, could be transferred to others in a normal state, simply by uniting 
the mental energy of several persons and directing this union of force 
toward the mind of one person called the percipient. 

For Essaj's on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXIII. 

Pain. — To show what percentage of result was thus obtained, a single 
series will suffice. These experiments were carried on at intervals, inter- 
spersed with experiments of other kinds, by Mr. Guthrie at Liverpool, dur- 
ing nine months in 1884 and 1885. The percipient on each occasion was 
blindfolded and seated with her back towards the rest of the party, who 
each pinched or otherwise injured themselves in the same part of the body 
at the same time. The agents in these experiments — the whole series of 
which is here recorded — were three or more of the following : — Mr. Guthrie, 
Professor Herdman, Dr. Hicks, Dr. Hyla Greves, Mr. R. C. Johnson, 
F.R.A.S., Mr. Birchall, Miss Redmond, and on one occasion another lady. 
The results are given in the following table : 

1. — Back of left hand pricked. Rightly localised. 2. — Lobe of left 
ear pricked. Rightly localised. 3. — Left wrist pricked. " Is it in the left 
hand?" pointing to the back near the little finger. 4. — Third finger of left 
hand tightly bound round with wire. A lower joint of that finger was 
guessed. 5. — Left wrist scratched with pins. ^' Is it in the left wrist, like 
being scratched?" 6. — Left ankle pricked. Rightly localised. 7. — Spot 
behind left ear pricked. No result. 8. — Right knee pricked. Rightly 
localised. 9. — Right shoulder pricked. Rightly localised. 10. — Hands 
burned over gas. '^ Like a pulling pain . . . then tingling, like cold 
and hot alternately," localised by gesture only. 11. — End of tongue bitten. 



DESTINY. 447 

*' Is it the lip or tlie tongue? " 12. — Palm of left hand pricked. "Is it a 
tingling pain in the left hand here? " placing her finger on the palm of the 
left hand. 13. — Back of neck pricked. " Is it a pricking of the neck?" 
14. — Front of left arm above elbow pricked. Rightly localised. 15. — 
Spot just above left ankle pricked. Rightly localised. 16. — Spot just 
above right wrist pricked. " I am not quite sure, but I feel a pain in the 
right arm, from the thumb upwards to above the wrist." 17. — Inside of 
left ankle pricked. Outside of left ankle guessed. 18. — Spot beneath 
right collar-bone pricked. The exactly corresponding spot on the left side 
guessed. No result. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Teu. 

LESSON DCCCLXIV. 

Visual Images. — The experiments which follow were made by Dr. 
Blair Thaw, M.D., of New York. The series quoted, which took place on 
the 28th of April 1892, comprises all the trials in which Dr. Thaw was 
himself the percipient. Dr. Thaw had his eyes blindfolded and his ears 
muffled, and the agent, Mrs. Thaw, and Mr. M. H. Wyatt, who was present 
but took no part in the agency, kept silent, except when it was necessary to 
state whether an object, card, number, or color was to be guessed. The 
objects were in all cases actually looked at by the agent, the "color" being 
a colored disc, and the numbers being printed on separate cards.* 1st 
Object. — Silk Pincushion, in form of Orange-Red Apple, quite round. — 
Percipient : A Disc. When asked what color, said. Red or^ Orange. When 
asked what object, named Pincushion. 2d Object. — A Short Lead Pencil, 
nearly covered by the nickel cover. Never seen by percipient. Percipient : 
Something white or light. A card. I thought of Mr. WyatVs silver pencil. 
3d Object. — A Dark Violet in Mr. Wyatt's button-hole, but not known 
to be in the house by percipient. Percipient : Something dark. Not very 
big. Longish. Narrow. Soft. It can't be a cigarette, because it is dark 
brown. A dirty color. Asked about smell, said : Not strong, but what you 
might call pungent ; a clean smell. Percipient had not noticed smell before, 
though sitting by Mr. Wyatt some time, but when afterwards told of the 
violet, knew that this was the odor noticed in experiment. Asked to spell 
name, percipient said : Phrygian, Phrigid, or first letter V. if not Ph. 4-^h 

*See Dr. Thaw's paper, Proc. Soc. Psych. Research, vol. viii., pp. 422 et seq. 



448 HOME COURSE IN PBIL080PHY—T0ME TEN. 

Object. — Watch, dull silver with filigree. Percipient : Yellow or dirty 
ivory. Not very big. Like carving on it. Watch is opened by agent, and 
percipient is asked what was done. Percipient says : You opened it. It is 
shaped like a butterfly. Percipient held thumb and finger of each hand, 
making figure much like that of opened watch. Percipient asked to spell 
it, said : I get r-i-n-g with a W at first. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXY. 

Distant Influences. — The cases thus far described are very few com- 
pared with those that have been reported and verified. They relate to per- 
sons who are immediately present within the sound of the voice, or in the 
same atmosphere of influence. The record of results from a distance con- 
sists of two classes : first, experiment ; second, spontaneity. That such dis- 
tant influences are possible is too well settled to be any longer in dispute. 
We are confronted by a large body of evidence for the spontaneous affection 
of one mind by another, and that at a distance frequently of hundreds of 
miles. It is difficult to resist the conclusion, in view of the close 
similarity, in many cases, of the effects produced, that the force operating in 
these spontaneous phenomena is identical with, or at least closely allied to, 
that which causes the transfer of sensations or images from agent to per- 
cipient within the compass of a drawing-room. The evidence relates to 
spontaneous telepathy rather than to results forced by experiment. But it 
is probably true that experiments have been comparatively seldom attempted. 
And if account be taken of the various drawbacks incident to experiments at 
a distance, the amount of success already achieved, though no doubt less in 
proportion to the number of serious and well-conceived attempts than is the 
case with experiments conducted under the more usual conditions, is yet far 
from discouraging. For trials at a distance are tedious; they consume much 
time, and call for long preparation and careful pre-arrangement. The diffi- 
culties of securing the necessary freedom from disturbance are probably 
increased when agent and precipient are separated. The interest in such 
experiments is difficult to maintain apart from the stimulus of a rapid suc- 
cession of trials with an immediate record of the results. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 449 



LESSON DCCCLXAH. 
An Experiment in Mental Intensity. — The English Society for 
Psychical Research has succeeded in verifying so many well-defined cases of 
distant influence, that I will leave the student who cares for mere accumula- 
tion of evidence, to address that association, at 19 Buckingham Street, Lon- 
don. But as one or two good cases are sufficient for these lessons, I will 
narrate an English case, a Paris case and an American case ; all of which I 
am satisfied are strictly true. The English case is as follows: On November 
16, 1886, Rev. Clarence Godfrey wrote to the English Society the following 
account of an experiment which he himself instituted: "Retiring at 10.45 
[on the 15th of November, 1886] I determined to appear, if possible, to a 
friend, and accordingly I set myself to work with all the volitional and 
determinative energy which I possess, to stand at the foot of her bed. I 
need not say that I never dropped the slightest hint beforehand as to my 
intention, such as could mar the experiment, nor had I mentioned the subject 
to her. As the 'agent' I may describe my own experiences. LTndoubtedly 
the imaginative faculty was brought extensively into play, as well as the 
volitional, for I endeavored to translate myself, spiritually, into her room, 
and to attract her attention, as it were, while standing there. My effort 
was sustained for perhaps eight minutes, after which I felt tired, and was 
soon asleep. The next thing I was conscious of was meeting the lady next 
morning {i. e., in a dream, I suppose?) and asking her at once if she had seen 
me last night. The reply came, 'Yes.' 'How?' I inquired. Then in 
words strangely clear and low, like a well audible whisper, came the answer, 
'I was sitting beside you.' These words, so clear, awoke me instantly, and 
I felt I must have been dreaming ; but on reflection I remembered what I 
had been 'willing' before I fell asleep, and it struck me, 'This must be a 
reflex action from the percipient.' My watch showed 3.40 a.m. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXVII. 

Result of the Experiment. — Mr. Godfrey received from the per- 
cipient on November 16, 1886, an account of her side of the experience, as 
follows : 

"Yesterday — viz., the morning of November 16, 1886 — about half- 
past three o'clock, I woke up with a start and an idea that some one had 

29 



45 O HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 



come into the room. I heard a curious sound, but fancied it might be the 
birds in the ivy outside. Next I experienced a strange restless longing to 
leave the room and go down stairs. This feeling became so overpowering 
that at last I rose and lit a candle, and went down, thinking if I could get 
some soda water it might have a quieting effect. On returning to my room 
1 saw Mr. Godfrey standing under the large window on the staircase. He 
was dressed in his usual style, and with an expression on his face that I have 
noticed when he has been looking very closely at anything. He stood there, 
and I held up the candle and gazed at him for three or four seconds in utter 
amazement, and then, as I passed up the staircase, he disappeared. The 
impression left on my mind was so vivid that I fully intended waking a 
friend who occupied the same room as myself, but remembering that I should 
only be laughed at as romantic and imaginative, refrained from so doing. I 
was not frightened at the appearance of Mr. Godfrey, but felt much 
excited, and could not sleep afterward." At the request of the Society for 
Psychical Research, Mr. Godfrey made another trial, without letting the per- 
cipient know of his purpose. On the 7th of December, 1886, he succeeded 

perfectly. Mrs. , writing on December 8th, states that she was awakened 

by hearing a voice cry, "Wake," and by feeling a hand rest on the left side 
of her head. She then saw stooping over her a figure which she recognized 
as Mr. Godfrey's. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXVIII. 

An American Case. — Out of innumerable cases in this country, the 
following may as well be taken as any other, as it is more easily verified, 
not only by reference to Mr. Haynes' journal record, which is open to the 
public, but from the Proceedings of the American Society for Psychological 
Research, pp. 444, 445. Mr. Gideon Haynes was warden of the Massachu- 
setts State's Prison, and the account is in his own words: 

"The following is an account of the affair made at the time: 'The fol- 
lowing very singular incident I can vouch for as having actually occurred. 
I refer to it, not to illustrate a supernatural or any other unusual agency, as 
I am a sceptic in such matters, but as a remarkable instance of hallucination 
or presentiment. I received a message from the wife of one of our convicts, 
in prison for life, that their only child, a bright little boy five years old, was 



DESTINY. 451 



dead, he having accidentally fallen into the water and been drowned. I was 
requested to communicate to the father the death of the child, but not the 
cause, as the wife preferred to tell him herself when she should visit him a 
week or two later. I sent for him to the guard-room, and after a few ques- 
tions in regard to himself, I said I had some sad news for him. He quickly 
replied, "I know what it is, Mr. Warden; my boy is dead!" "How did 
you hear of it?" I asked. "Oh, I knew it was so; he was drowned, was 
he not, Mr. Warden?" "But who informed you of it?" I again asked. 
"No one," he replied. "How, then, did you know he was dead, and what 
makes you think he was drowned?" "Last Sunday," he said, "your little 
boy was in the chapel ; he fell asleep, and you took him up and held him. 
As I looked up and caught sight of him lying in your arms, instantly the 
thought occurred to me that my boy was dead — drowned. In vain I tried 
to banish it from my mind, to think of something else, but could not; the 
tears came into my eyes, and it has been ringing in my ears ever since; and 
when you sent for me, my heart sunk within me, for I felt sure my fears 
were to be confirmed." What made it more remarkable was the fact that 
the child was missed during the forenoon of that Sunday, but the body was 
not found for some days after. The foregoing is copied from my journal, 
the entry made on the day of the interview, and I can assure you is strictly 

correct in every particular. 

"Gideon Haynes." 

In answer to inquiries as to the name and address of the percipient, 
Mr. Haynes writes : — 

"His name was Timothy Cronan. He was pardoned in 1873 or 1874. 
Mr. Darling, the oflicer in the guard-room to-day, occupied the same position 
when I had the interview with Cronan. He was present, and remembers 
distinctly all the circumstances of the case, which were discussed by us at 
the time. Cronan served some ten or twelve years. . . . He has not been 
heard from at the prison since his discharge." 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXIX. 

The Paris Case 1 have an authentic Paris case, the truth of which 

oanaot be in doubt. Dr. Gibotteau, in the year 1888, made the acquaintance 



452 H031E COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

of a peasant woman, who was in his charge in a Paris hospital ; and who 
claimed to be able to direct her thoughts to any person. She gave Dr. 
Gibotteau several illustrations of these powers, and he believes her preten- 
sions to be well founded (^Annales des Sciences Psyehiques, vol. ii. pp. 253— 
267, and pp. 317-337). The following instances of hallucinatory effects of 
a more ordinary kind are taken from the same paper. In the last case, it 
will be observed, the experience was collective. In none of the three cases 
were the percipients aware of Bertha's intention to experiment. It will be 
seen that in the second case she succeeded in producing the emotional effect 
desired, though the imaginary object by which she intended to inspire 
terror was hardly of a kind calculated to frighten a hospital surgeon. 
Dr. Gibotteau writes : " I am a good sleeper, and I do not remember ever 
waking of my own accord in the middle of my sleep. One night, about 
2 or 3 o'clock, I was abruptly awakened. With my eyes still shut I thought, 
' This is one of B.'s tricks. What is she going to make me see ?' I then 
looked at the opposite wall ; I saw a circular luminous spot, and in the 
centre a brilliant object, about the size of a melon, that I stared at for 
several seconds, being wide awake, before it disappeared. I could not 
distinguish any form clearly, nor any detail, but the object was round, and 
parts of it appeared to be less luminous. I imagined that she had wished 
to show me a skull, but I could not recognize it ; the Avail was lighted up 
in that place as if by a strong lamp; the room was not completely dark, 
because the window had outside blinds, and the curtains were drawn back ; 
but this brilliant object did not seem to give out any light beyond the area 
of which it occupied the centre on the wall. That was all. I waited a 
moment without seeing anything else, then I went fast asleep again. The 
next day I found B., who had come to visit the hospital, and I questioned her 
cautiously. She had tried to show me first of all some dogs round my bed, 
then some men quarrelling, and finally a lantern. That was all. It will 
be seen that though the first two attempts failed, the third succeeded 
perfectly. Here is another account of a fright. One evening I was 
entering my house, at midnight. On the landing, as I was putting my 
hand on the door-handle, I said to myself, ' What a nuisance ! here is 
another of B.'s tricks! She is going to make me see somethiug terrifying in 
the passage; it is very disagreeable.' I was really a bit nervous. I opened 



DESTINY. ^453 



the door suddenly, with my eyes shut, and seized a match ; in a few minutes 
I was in bed, and, blowing out my candle, I put my head under the bed- 
clothes, like a child. The next day she asked me if I had not seen a 
skeleton in the passage or in my room, and been very much frightened. It 
need hardly be said that a skeleton was the last thing in the world that 
could frighten me ; and frankly, I think that I am not more of a coward 
than the common run of men." 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXX. 
Explanation. — Before entering into an analysis of the cause and pro- 
cess of operation of this power, I will repeat the claims of others who 
undertake to explain this apparent mystery. It is now universally agreed 
that there is an inner air, an ether, or AE, which is universal, and fills all 
space. This is called the thought-media, or seas iu which the vibrations of 
the brain may send its waves of influence. The physical changes, which 
are the accompaniments of thought or sensation in the agent are transmitted 
from the brain as undulations in the intervening medium, and thus excite 
corresponding changes in some other brain, without any other portion of the 
organism being necessarily implicated in the transmission. This hypothesis 
has found its most philosophical champion in Dr. Ochorowicz, who has 
devoted several chapters of his book, De la Suggestion mentale, to the discus- 
sion of the various theories on the subject. He begins by recalling the 
reciprocal convertibility of all physical forces with which we are acquainted, 
and especially draws attention to what he calls the law of reversibility, a 
law which he illustrates by a description of the photophone. The photo- 
phone is an instrument in which a mirror is made to vibrate to the human 
voice. The mirror reflects a ray of light, which, vibrating in its turn, falls 
upon a plate of solenium, modifying its electric conductivity. The inter- 
mittent current so produced is transmitted through a telephone, and the 
original articulate sound is reproduced. Now the equilibrium of the 
nervous system, he sees reason to believe, is profoundly ajffected. The nerve- 
energy liberated in this state, he points out, " cannot pass beyond " the sub- 
ject's brain " without being transformed. Nevertheless, like any other 
force, it cannot remain isolated ; like any other force it escapes, but in dis- 
guise. Orthodox science allows it only one way out, the motor nerves. 



454 SOMi: COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME TEN. 

These are the holes in the dark lantern through which the rays of light 
escape. . . . Thought remains in the brain, just as the chemical 
energy of the galvanic battery remains in the cells, but each is represented 
outside by its correlative energy, which in the case of the battery is called 
the electric current, but for which in the other we have as yet no name. In 
any case there is some correlative energy — for the currents of the motor 
nerves do not and cannot constitute the only dynamic equivalent of cerebral 
energy — to represent all the complex movements of the cerebral mechanism."* 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXI. 
Rule of Experiment. — The foregoing explanation may seem to be 
theory only. I have made a large number of experiments based on my own 
previous evidence, which I wish to see, if possible, verified in others. This 
having been repeatedly done, I lay down certain laws, which I personally 
know to be correct. Before stating them, I will give a description of certain 
general experiments, also the rule which governs the experiments, and the 
process by which any person may test the double-law of telepathy. The time 
should be at night, the nearer to midnight the better. The nerves are 
extremely sensitive between eleven and one o'clock. Other times will do, 
but this is the best. The room should be above the first floor. No noises 
from without should be heard. A party of four should comprise the experi- 
ments : one to be the percipient, and three the agents. The former should 
be blindfolded, and the ears should be packed to prevent hearing. The three 
agents should keep together, and should be persons who are capable of holding 
their thoughts within control. They should remain behind the percipient, 
and be perfectly agreed in all they do. The mental energy is best exerted 
when the will power is so intense that it does not doubt its ability to 
impress itself on another. By this rule it is certain that thoughts, feelings, 
words, signs, visual images and even colors, sounds and smells may be trans- 
ferred to the mind of the percipient ; and each one of the party may act as 
such. Failure is more apt to occur in the first hundred experiments, but 
patience should be long and persevering ; for science knows no haste and no 
rest. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



* De la Suggestion mentale, Paris, 1887, pp. 511, 512. 



DESTINY. 465 



LESSON DCCCLXXII. 
The Double-Law. — Any person who is able to exert a vibratory 
intensity to the thought movements of his brain will produce an extra- 
impression on the excited brain of some other person. This proposition 
involves a double-law. It is an open question who is the stronger, — the one 
of sensitive mind or the one of intense mind. Both are subjective. Both 
laws exist in all persons. It is not, who is sensitive or intense in mind, but 
how much ; for the dullest of people have some intensity, and the stupidest 
of brains must be somewhat sensitive. It is when the extraordinary degree 
appears that it is said to overleap the normal and become phenomenal. 
This rule prevails in all mental life. The poet is but an extra- normal 
jingler ; a degree of the highest rank of the weak mind that makes foolish 
rhymes. Shakespeare was a genius, but the weakest normal intellect of his 
day was but a lesser degree in his scale. So in insanity, all minds are more 
or less unsound ; but only the deficiency that overleaps the normal is said to 
be insanity. If this proposition as to degree could be understood, the diffi- 
culties of telepathy would disappear. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXIII. 

The Brain Tissue. — The relation between phosphorus and thought is 
very close. A man who thinks hard draws phosphates from the blood and 
excretes them. This can be proved in two ways, and is accepted as con- 
clusive. A piece of phosphorus glows with a wavering light. This can be 
tested by scratching a match on the wall in a dark room. To understand 
thought better draw the brain of a man, in a rough sketch ; put a faint out- 
line around it for the contour of the head ; then draw a fainter cloud all 
around the head, extending from the center of the brain in radii which are 
each the diameter of the head. These radii must appear as clouds of the 
same kind as the waving phosphorus. A scientist of my acquaintance used 
to put phosphorus on a globe to illustrate the wavy action of thought, and 
sought to maintain the claim that, when we think, the phosphorus is a halo, 
or cloud, emanating from the brain. But the nearer fact is that the thinker 
is surrounded by a mental cloud of pul-glow, which is not apparent except 
to a brain the magnifying power of which has been developed by the exer- 
cises previously given. Thinking builds brain tissue, by using it and 



456 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 

creating a demand for more ; the demand always supplying an excess. It 
is on this principle that exercise builds up the muscles of the general body. 

for Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXIV. 
Intelligence, — Commencing with the Atom and following it through 
all its stages of combination, we find an ever present Pul-glow, called pur- 
pose or intelligence, increasing as the combinations increase. While no part 
of the body is free from this intelligence, it concentrates in certain places 
from which it acts as a governing mass. Each governing mass is a ganglion, 
a bag or sac containing gray matter and white matter which feeds on and is 
stimulated by phosphorus. Such a mass is a union of molecules of pure 
intelligence. They are scattered all through the body, but there is always a 
tendency for like to seek like ; and the gray matter of the body is collected 
in great masses in the head, acquiring the name hrain. In order to under- 
stand what is meant by mind, multiply the single intelligence of a pul-atom 
with the number necessary to form a molecule; remember that an unlimited 
number may dwell in a single molecule, and be so arranged that all pul-ends 
are outside, or exposed, thus forming an aggressive element of the highest 
mental endowment ; that such molecules are white if pure pul, or gray if 
only pure in part ; that the brain is made up of convolutions, each of which 
is composed of uncountable millions of pul-molecules ; and, if you have fol- 
lowed the course in Higher Magnetism, you will have no difficulty in under- 
standing exactly what the brain is. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXV. 
Thought. — All thought is the result of stimulation, and is in fact but 
a response of the mind to such stimulus. The course of thought lies in the 
gray matter that occupies the brain and body ; in other words we are what 
we are ; we think as we are ; we are as we think. In the millions times 
innumerable millions of little DEVS and ANGS that make us what we are, 
there are stored away in each one of us more possibilities than the world has 
yet witnessed, — potent agencies for either good or bad. No person living 
need be humble or dwell in mediocrity. These possibilities need only some 
stimulus to unfold them, to call them into life, A word, an event, an 
occasion, a deep entrancing thought may seize upon some dormant life in our 



DESTINY. 457 



character and awaken it to a blazon of glory. Each one is endowed with a 
divine faculty; but nearly all go down to the grave in obscurity. We will 
call the brain of man a fathomless sea of untouched thought, awaiting the 
influence that shall call forth the response. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXVI. 

Thought- Waves The ocean is a mass of water; a wave started 

from the shore rolls out to sea and is lost only by the dying of its own force. 
The air is a mass of gases. The voice causes the exhaled breath to tremble 
by waves of sound, and these waves roll on through the air, until they 
perish. Within the air is an ether, so fine that, as it travels through solid 
iron, it seems to roam in great hollow chambers. This ether is to the mind 
what the air is to the voice. A word sets the gases in motion ; a thought 
vibrates the ether. An examination of the brain proves this. Its indenta- 
tions, grooves, hollows, convolutions and waves are like a disturbed sea 
crested with huge billows, interlaced with finer cross currents in every 
possible direction ; whereas an unused brain, like that of an imbecile or a 
child, is as smooth as an unruffled lake. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays." at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXVII. 
Process of Thinking — The blood supplies every tissue of the body. 
Its ceaseless current is laden with the materials that build the brain. A 
thought excites the blood, and the blood often excites the brain to think. 
The blood pours over the brain an acidulous fluid, called a wash, which 
deposits phosphorus to be absorbed. That part of the brain which thinks, 
as it receives this strong excitant, contracts and expands with great rapidity 
and more or less energy, — the latter being dependent upon the width of the 
vibration. In the voice the same principle holds true : the breadth of the 
vocal wave determines its force, without varying its 2)itch. The pendulum 
is an example of this: if it is of uniform length it requires the same amount 
of time to swing one foot as to swing twenty feet; but in the latter case the 
intensity of the swinging power must be exceedingly great. A weak tone 
has narrow vibrations , a weak thought excites the brain to narrow waves. 
The habit of intense thinking may be cultivated to a very high degree, and 
is essential to success in mental achievements. In proportion to the growth 



458 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



of this power the thought-waves become broader, have more carrying energy 
and affect a recipient brain more intensely. Tlie imperial minds are those 
whose thought-waves are broad and therefore far-reaching and irresistible. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXVIII. 
Distant Thoughts — A wave sent forth upon the ether that pervades all 
matter and all space, travels exactly as sound moves through the air. A 
tone dies by interruption or by a gradual loss of its energy. The sound 
awakens a response in all strings that harmonize with it. This is well known 
to the musician, and enters into the construction of instruments. If you 
strike but one note on a piano, the third, fifth, and eighth notes above it will 
commence to vibrate and give out distinct sounds. This may be easily tested 
by holding bits of paper against them. So, if a violin and a piano are in 
the same room, and a note on the piano be struck, the same note on the vio- 
lin will vibrate, if the note be fixed. Two pianos a hundred feet apart are 
capable of exciting this secondary vibration in each other. In thinking it is 
the same, the ether being far more flexible than the air. If a mind is capable 
of sending out thought- waves of great breadth, that is of vibratory inten- 
sity, there is no reason why such waves should not set in motion a similar 
part of the brain of another individual a long distance away. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end ot Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXIX. 
Sensitiveness. — The reception of a thought- wave depends entirely 
upon the sensitive condition of the brain of the recipient. This sensitive- 
ness may and should be cultivated, as there is no possible harm in it. It is 
merely the concentration of mental energy, made possible by riveting the 
attention so as to drive away all other thought-waves and counter influence. 
Any bright piece of glass is sufiicient. Steadily gazing at it, in a room free 
from all noise and distraction will produce such sensitiveness as to enable 
the mind to throw out grasping pseudopods and thus absorb the thought. 
Speaking of this, the English Society for Psychical Research says (see vol. 
viii, p. 436) : " It should perhaps be said that there is nothing in the expe- 
rience of the many persons who have so far tried crystal ga:zing, at the 
instance of the S.P.R., to indicate risk of injury to health. It is no doubt 
not advisable for an invalid, or for anyone suffering from headache, or undue 



DESTINY. 459 

fatigue, to try the experiment. Indeed, the experience of Mrs. Verrall and 
others is that success under such conditions is unattainable. But with ordi- 
nary care to avoid straining the eyes, no evil effect, it is thought, need be 
apprehended ; and there is probably no form of experiment which at the cost 
of so little trouble may be expected to yield results of so great interest and 
value. There is of course no magic in the crystal ; a glass paper-weight, a 
mirror, or a glass of water will serve the purpose equally well." 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXX. 
Destiny of the Mind. — Is the power of telepathy a remnant of a pre- 
vious age when fewer words were used ; or is it the dawning of a new agency 
which may help man to attain a better authority over the world ? It must 
be remembered that the human race once depended on its physical strength 
more than it does to-day. The mind may, by its skill, defend the body bet- 
ter than can the prowess of the muscles. One hundred civilized men are 
stronger than ten thousand savages. An idea may hold a nation in check. 
If man, then, has taken the decided step which has advanced him out of the 
status of a physical animal, why may not the onward march of mental 
ascendency place him another step forward ? The indications point that way. 
The ability to read men's minds is the negative side of telepathy. What do 
you care for the contents of others' minds, if they contain nothing worth 
having ? It is the positive side that is worth cultivating ; not the ability to 
read the minds of others so much as to compel them to read yours ; to have 
thoughts whose importance shall sway others, and compel obedience. I have 
spoken of the skill of gamblers and other criminals in knowing the minds 
of others ; but this always a])pears as a negative gift. I have never seen a 
gambler who had the slightest control of the mind of another. 

For Essays on tliis subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXI. 
Ghosts. — A positive mental condition never sees a ghost; a negative 
mind is easily wrought up to such visions. What ghosts are, we will discuss 
later on ; the ability to see them is now before us. Crystal gazing, if em- 
ployed in lonely buildings at late hours, will develop such an extraordinary 
sensitiveness that almost any kind of an image may be conjured up. Like 
dreams, I find that visions and illusions occur when the acidulous was-h is 



460 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

flowing over the convolutions in an attempt to act upon them. It is the fric- 
tion of the mind's machinery, trying to induce the activity of wakefulness. 
At such times the brain is overexcited and abnormal results follow. Of the 
hundreds of people who have seen ghosts all have seen them, as far as I can 
learn, during the waking moments that followed lethargy, or after periods 
of excessive nervous strain, wherein the mind was overwrought. Both for 
mental power and freedom from this negative contortion, I advise every stu- 
dent of these pages to cultivate the strictest honesty, and the most active 
goodness ; such qualities are safeguards against the terrors of illusions. No 
good person ever suffers from his mind's caprices. The guilty conscience of 
the criminal heart is ever seeking to run away from itself. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXII. 
Man's Fourth Division. — In the preceding pages we have considered 
man in his first division, as a part of the universal soul of Nature ; in his 
second division, as a moving being, and therefore physical ; in his third 
division, as a thinking being, and therefore mental. In the symmetry of the 
system we proceed to his fourth division, and find him a moral being, and 
therefore human. Any created life that is moral is human. Man is at least 
of four-fold existence ; and is inclusive. He cannot be human without being 
mental, physical and vegetable. This law of inclusion is important as lead- 
ing to a better conception of the rare man, the five-fold being. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXIII. 

Nature of Humanity To be human is to feel emotions, from which 

emanate reason. We say the animal thinks but does not reason ; this is be- 
cause he is not contemplative. The order then is this, the emotion, the rec- 
ognition of it, contemplation, reason. Animals live to eat. In order to 
eat, they must be strong enough to go and to capture the food, sometimes 
after a struggle. In order to be strong they must exercise ; therefore they 
play. The sum total of animal nature is to eat and to play. Man, left to 
the influences which culture seeks to overcome, drifts toward the animal occu- 
pation ; he eats from three to five times a day, and plays the rest of his 
waking time. His humanity is lessened, and he calls himself "hardened," 
or schooled against diversity ; but he is merely dropping to the animal part 



DESTINY. 461 



of himself. He rises in proportion as he feels ; and he is perfectly human 
when his moral responsibility measures strength with the passions and emo- 
tions of a perfectly developed humanity. This leads us to an examination 
of the passions and emotions. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXiy. 
The Passions. — There are five passions in a human being; and each 
passion has its dark side. The first passion is love, and its dark side is hate ; 
the second passion is hope, and its dark side is grief ; the third passion is 
pride, and its dark side is shame ; the fourth passion is resolution, and its 
dark side is fear ; the fifth passion is excitement, and its dark side is depres- 
sion. By unfolding these with the opposites, we find ten separable systems 
of emotions, each system having ten emotions in its group. Instead of 
theorizing on the passions, I have made a chart of actual life as it is lived ; 
or, in other words, I have set up a practical existence as against a sermon. 
For years I have made use of real human experiences and know whereof I 
speak, when I say that the chart and the instructions concerning its applica- 
tion to life present a system of actual value to every person. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXV. 
The Emotions — Taking the passions and their opposites as the basis 
of ten groups of emotions, I have made what is called a Chai't of Human 
Life, involving one hundred sections. They are placed in their ten groups, 
the order being purposely arranged so as to bring the groups into a scale of 
value ; the group that should claim the most frequent attention being placed 
at the top. These are to be studied subjectively ; and their meaning should 
be understood only in their subjective sense. The titles are appeals only to 
our feelings. The first are called, " The Ten of the Cross ; " the second 
are called, " The Ten of the Star ; " the third are called, " The Ten of the 
Heart ; " the fourth are called, " The Ten of the Shield ; " the fifth are 
called, "The Ten of the Wreath;" the sixth are called, "The Ten of the 
Anchor;" the seventh are called, "The Ten of the Knife;" the eighth 
are called, " The Ten of the Pistol ; " the ninth are called, " The Ten of 
the Gallows ; " the tenth are called, " The Ten of the Coffin." 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



462 



H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



LESSOX DCCCLXXXVI. 

Chart of Human Life — As was recommended in the Ninth Tome, 
charts should be liung in the sleeping room of each student in Philosophy. 
They serve to impress him who sees them the last thing at night, and the 
first thing in the morning. Let the attention be called at such times to any 



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CHART OF HUMAN LIFE. 



fact, and the rest of the life will blend with it. Give one the waking 
moments of the morning and the last of the evening, and let him place 
before him whatever fact he most desires to absorb into his nature, and the 
results will prove the claim. I believe that, not for self-good alone, but 



DESTINY. 463 



for the welfare of every member of the family, two charts should hang in 
the house ; one to show what life is ; the other to show what life 
SHOULD BE. The latter is shown by the Chart of Religion, as arranged in 
Tome Nine ; but what life is is shown by the Chart of Human Life. 
The two are fit companions. The dangers of life are more readily avoided 
by an advance knowledge of their character ; many roads are taken which 
would have been shunned had the guide-board said " dangerous." 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end ot Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXVII. 
Brain Sections. — As the brain of man is mental, like that of a noble 
animal, it differs from the latter's by reason of being the seat of the human 
soul. This soul is represented by the one hundred emotions; and, to set up 
an appreciative harmony between the cerebrum and its offspring, the latter 
should be placed in the large brain in sections. This is an exercise of the 
memory; and the basis of an unusually important experiment. It answers 
the question, How may we know something of the human soul? If you 
are willing to become an investigator you must be willing to experiment. 
The method is thousands of years old, and is this: Imagine your brain to 
have a dome extending from the forehead to the back ; it commences at 
that place where the forehead joins the hair, and across here from left to 
right the first ten sections are to extend in one line. They represent the 
group of the Cross. Imagine that you can, on shutting the eyes, look up 
under the roof of the skull, and see ten rows of ten sections each, one 
hundred in all ; the last row, that of the Coffin, being at the back of the 
head. This is their logical arrangement. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXVin. 
Memory. — After fixing each of the one hundred sections, imagine that 
the whole is larger than the head; in other words allow the head to swell to 
proportions as large as the ceiling of a square room at least eight feet by 
eight in size. This exaggeration will aid to intensify the thought. Now 
commence to commit to memory each section and the name of its emotion, 
keeping them in their proper position. Then as each emotion may be named 
lot)k mentally to its position in the brain. This should be so well done 
that one hundred little cards, containing those names, should be assorted, 



464 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME TEN. 

and, as any one is drawn, its mental position should be fixed and seen 
clearly. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCLXXXIX. 

Schooling the Emotions. — Any ordinary artist or school boy can 
make you a Chart of Human Life. It may be of any size easily readable. 
There are times when you should be alone with it, and alone with yourself. 
There is no company so important as your own character. Great men are 
fond of contemplation and solitude. It is there that the problems of their 
success are thought over and worked out. To be alone with the story of 
your life before you, the "story of all life, is healthful to the moral interests. 
A very satisfactory experiment is that of watching the chart, letting the eye 
travel from one emotion to another. Soon the chord of some defect in your 
character will sound a discordant note, and the lesson will sink deep into 
your heart. A very beautiful experiment is that of exciting the memory 
of the past. This is done by looking intently at any one section on the 
chart, and forcing the mind to think of it, until some connected event 
comes up; this will be followed by a train of events numbering from ten 
to a hundred. You will examine, in retrospect, a whole history in your 
past, and its lessons will teach you to profit by their experience. There are 
dangers ahead of you. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXC. 
The Cross. — Under this title there are ten emotions; peace, mercy, 
reverence, ambition, prayer, longing, wishing, trust, hope, and faith. All 
these should be cultivated. The day should begin with them, and end with 
them ; and, being thus framed, it should dwell in them. The cultivation 
of so great a series of emotions will occupy the time and place that might 
be taken by the more fearful ones. Peace is the calmness of an active soul ; 
and stands at the head of all human life. It is the top rung of the ladder 
whose higher end is anchored within the Courts of Heaven. There can be 
no doubt as to the destiny of a soul whose activity is displayed in constant 
warfare against the devil, while its own conscience is at peace with God. 
Mercy is the consistency of justice. Reverence is respect for goodness. 
Ambition is the desire of worthy achievement. Prayer is an address to 



DESTINY. 465 



God for power to defeat the DEVS. Longing is a fixed prayer that holds 
possession of our being at all times. AVishing is an intense special desire 
for the accomplishnient of some good deed. Trust is a settled belief. 
Hope is a guiding light that shines on the pathway ahead of us. Faith is 
an implicit confidence in the guidance of Hope. These are all worthy of 
our constant thought and seeking. They are spiritual. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCI. 
The Star. — It will be seen that the foremost group of emotions are 
kin of the divine nature that stirs within us. Next in the order of import- 
ance is the mental group, represented by a Star, — the emblem of the mind. 
They are the following: pride, nobility, eloquence, patriotism, sacrifice, 
solemnity, dignity, triumph, grandeur and sublimity. While the first group 
should be cultivated for the sake of the spiritual greatness which is achieved, 
the present group should be sought for the mental stimulus which they impart 
to one's life. Pride is mental joy over some worthy deed. Nobility is 
breadth of mind and generosity of act. Eloquence is inspired enthusiasm. 
Patriotism is love of country. Sacrifice is not merely the willingness, but 
the act, displayed on behalf of a great cause or good cause. Solemnity is 
the recognition of an ever present divinity. Dignity is mental gravity. 
Triumph is the victory over evil. Grandeur is the splendor of a great mind. 
Sublimity is the association of the mind with divinity. 

For Essays on this subject, sec " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCII. 
The Heart. — Next to the spiritual and the mental, the joyous should be 
encouraged and cultivated. The emotions of the heart are : goodness, 
resjiect, affection, love, fantasy, mirth, joy, flattery, ecstasy and passion. 
These are of life and in life ; and we must see them as they are. Goodness 
is a desire to be pure in heart, mind and body. Respect is a recognition of 
merit in the lowly. Affection is a regard for parents, family, friends or life. 
Love is the desire for marriage. Fantasy is a delicate appreciation of delight. 
Mirth is mere pleasure. Joy is satisfying pleasure. Flattery is excessive 
praise, and should be avoided; neither used nor believed. Ecstasy is 
delicious joy. Passion is animal love ; it has no place in a noble life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," as the end of Tome Ten. 
30 



466 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



LESSON DCCCXCIII. 

The Shield There are emotions that were merely physical in the 

time of wars and tournaments ; now the battle field is a moral one ; the test 
of courage greater ; and the opportunities for glorious fighting everywhere 
manifest. These emotions are : courage, determination, resolution, daring, 
intensity, warning, challenge, resentment, threatening, recklessness. Courage 
is the unflinching execution of a great or difficult act, knowing its full 
nature. Determination is the mental formation of a fixed purpose to do some 
act aggressive in its nature. Resolution is the mental formation of a fixed 
purpose not aggressive in its nature. Thus we find that The Shield is the 
dividing group of emotions, leading our character astray. The Ten of the 
Cross is at the highest point of man's humanity, and is the dividing line 
between mortal and immortal hope. Down the ladder we come to the Ten 
of the Star, or man's mentality ; the Ten of the Heart, or man's goodness ; 
to the Ten of the Shield, or the physical, and that means the animal. Here, 
for the first time we find good and bad mingled. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCIV. 
Man and Animal. — The Chart is worth the deepest study as an exposi- 
tion of life, and its emotions. We see that it is only in the realm of the 
physical that trouble may arise. While Courage is necessary to one who 
seeks the inheritance of immortality. Determination is its great basis, and 
Resolution its surface. Daring is next, and is described as an impetuous 
performance of an extraordinary act without full consideration of its dangers. 
Intensity is a magnetic, nervous fire of the soul, resolving against all odds 
to execute some purpose. Warning is a notification of war. Challenge is 
an invitation to fight. Resentment is a warlike rebuke. Threatening is the 
mental execution of a warlike rebuke. Recklessness is an uncontrollable 
execution of the deeds of combat. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCV. 

The Wreath, — Here we find the tearful group of life, — gi'ief, sadness, 

regret, sympathy, melancholy, disappointment, disconsolation, desolation, 

despair, frenzy. Look up ! The sun is shining. Look to the joys of the 

Heart, the fascinations of the mind in the Star, the peace of the human soul 



DESTINY. 467 



in the Cross ; all above you. The Chart should be large enough to compel 
you to look down to the lowest emotions, and up to the highest and brightest. 
As a man carries his head, so is he. Directly in front of you is the Shield, 
the Wreath and the Anchor ; the three common groups of human life. In 
your chamber or your study why not place a map from ceiling to floor? 
The Shield is slightly higher than the Wreath. In the latter we find life's 
gloom. Grief is the common suffering that follows some great loss or 
affliction. Sadness is sorrow for what could not have been otherwise. 
Regret is sorrow for what might have been otherwise. Sympathy is the 
sharing of another's grief. Melancholy is a gloomy, morbid sorrow. Dis- 
appointment is sorrow for which we are not prepared. Disconsolation is an 
obstinate enjoyment of grief, refusing to be comforted. Desolation is grief 
accompanied by the abandonment of hope and friends. Despair is prostra- 
tion in grief. Frenzy is a wild sorrow. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCVI. 
The Anchor. — There are certain emotions which belong to every 
human being, and which require the solid anchorage of care and constant 
watchfulness. These are the following : doubt, wonder, perturbation, surprise, 
excitement, bewilderment, amazement, embarrassment, insanity, madness. 
Doubt is a condition of mental uncertainty. Wonder is a marvelling at 
something that impresses the soul. Perturbation is a conflict between doubt 
and wonder, or between the mind and the soul. Surprise is the taking of 
the mind unawares. Excitement is a shock to the medulla or nervous 
system, and deranges the functions of respiration, circulation and digestion. 
Bewilderment is a complication of surprises and doubts. Amazement is a 
temporary suspension of the mental faculties, caused by some occurrences 
too extraordinary to be realized. Insanity is a separation of the human from 
the animal nature. Madness is a combination of insanity with excitement. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCVII. 
The Knife — The so-called dagger emotions of human life are as fol- 
lows : hate, scorn, disdain, defiance, contempt, jealousy, anger, treachery, 
revenge and rage. Hate is temporary kingship of the Devil in a human 
being ; and is so common and so powerful that it may sweep away the 



468 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

results of years of kindness and affection. The strongest friendship may 
crumble beneath its force. Scorn is the belittling of an equal or superior. 
Disdain is arrogant abuse. Defiance is an exhibition of conscious self -power. 
Contempt is the belittling of an inferior. Jealousy is the pain of suspicion 
affecting the love or friendship of another. Anger is uncontrolled hate. 
Treachery is deception practiced in order to take advantage of another. 
Revenge is the desire to make another suffer in retaliation for ah injury 
received, and for the mere sake of enjoying the suffering of the other. Rage 
is excited anger. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCVIII. 
The Pistol. — There is a place in an evil life, when the Devil says, 
"kill yourself." The ten emotions of this class are the following: shame, 
humility, repentance, anxiety, petulance, murder, guilt, remorse, agony, and 
desperation. Shame is moral degradation. Humility is a lowering of self 
to another. Repentance is the acknowledgment of wrong done, with a 
genuine intention of restoring the right, and of not repeating the wrong. 
Anxiety is unrest during the progress of som'e event, and is generally 
prompted by guilt. Petulance is an unworthy yielding to an irritable 
feeling which degrades the nobility of the character. Murder is a desire 
to kill a human being. Any other killing is not murder. Guilt is a 
consciousness of crime committed, from which consciousness one cannot 
escape. Remorse is the judgment of the human soul for crimes which 
haunt the mind. Agony is intensified remorse. Desperation is excited 
agony, generally attended by a wanton throwing of the soul into its Hell. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCXCIX. 
The Gallows. — The man or woman who cannot obtain release from 
the power of the Evil One always drifts toward that condition which is the 
fate of the jail-bird awaiting execution. Many untried criminals are tor- 
tured by this horrible shadow of impending fate. The emotions of the 
gallows are: superstition, stealth, apprehension, alarm, fear, fright, awe, 
fury, terror and horror. Superstition is a belief in some extra-vital 
agency which affects our conduct in life. Stealth is secrecy of action 
through fear of discovery. Apprehension is far away fear. Alarm is an 



DESTINY. 469 



arousing of the mind prompted by terror. Fear is the anticipation of 
immediate injury from a source not jjresent, or, if present, not in the act 
of execution. Fright is a sudden startled feeling caused by an unexpected 
appearance or act which may or may not do harm. Awe is an impressive 
mental condition caused by some unexplained occurrene. Fury is a wild, 
tumultuous fear. Terror is intense fright. Horror is a hideous fear of 
present destruction. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCC. 
The Coffin. — This is the last of life ; and for that reason the lowest in 
the chart. The emotions, or really the conditions, of this class are the fol- 
lowing : depression, resignation, age, repose, stupidity, delusion, pain, surren- 
der, suicide and death. Depression is a giving way to the attacks of misfortune. 
Resignation is a yielding to a careless mood, and is quite philosophical when 
it averts anxiety that is unfounded, but is death to all future possibilities. 
Age is physical depression. Ilepose is the love of inactivity, and is also 
sleep, the death of the daily life. Stupidity is the depression of the mind. 
Delusion is the depression of the senses. Pain is the breaking up of some 
nervous power. Surrender is an affirmative yielding to some influence whose 
power we do not care to contest. Suicide is the cowardly act of destroying 
the body. Death is life's end. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCI. 
How Age Comes On. — The chemist and the microscopist may study 
the body and may tell us what death is. Through their eyes we see the 
direct cause of age and the wearing out of the system. It is not a secret 
that the demands of the bones for calcareous particles is the cause of old age 
and its interference with the faculties of life through the clogging of the 
veins. The bones require mineral matter to give them hardness ; the blood 
is loaded with this matter ; the bones absorb all they need ; and the unused 
particles float in the blood until they are lodged in the lining of the veins 
and against the tissues. Weakness follows, and the breakdown is called age. 
There is no doubt that all persons who die a natural death, break down or 
wear out through this simple process. 

For Essays uu this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



470 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME JEN. 

LESSON DCCCCII. 
Is Death Necessary ? — This is the problem of the ages. If we know 
the cause, and are able to avert its effects, is it not possible to do so for an 
indefinite length of time. A person who exercised the utmost care in the 
eating of food, and in cleanliness and exercise, could arrange the diet so that 
the exact proportions of required matter would be partaken daily. But 
there must be a vital intelligence back of this method. There must be 
glame. Man may assort the chemical elements required by his body, but 
the intelligence of the Atom must provide the spirit of life. This is found 
as a central intelligence in all food that has been organized in some form of 
vegetable growth. I believe that a meat diet is wrong ; but no man has a 
right to give up that food which is already provided in proper proportions, 
for unnutritious vegetables. Man should find out what he eats, and what 
the varieties of food are worth as nutrition. When he obtains the real ele- 
ments of his body, he should seek to learn the quantity needed daily. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCIIL 
Defiance of Death. — If the story of the struggle of the great past is 
worth anything as a guide to the possibilities, it would seem that the pro- 
longed duration of life was dependent upon mere knowledge. Until man 
knew how to avoid death he was a child of accident. Even the lightning 
rod is an Atom only of the advantage of knowledge. If we learn that a 
tree is dangerous during a thunderstorm, this little knowledge is a drop in 
the ocean of prevention. The rocks, the icebergs, the derelicts in the Atlan- 
tic are fruitful sources of danger, which may be avoided only by knowledge. 
The epidemics that have swept away so many millions are no longer possible 
where knowledge forearms a community of energy. So the duration of life 
is but the prevention of death. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCiy. 
The Three Possibilities. — A human being is like a city ; and there 
are three conditions in which any city may be found. If it knows that 
weeds, filth, bad drainage, and lack of cleanliness are menaces to its health 
and its existence even, it may or may not correct the faults; hence they 
become the cause of the epidemic that wipes out the whole city. A pesti- 



DESTINY. 471 



lence can do no injury to a healthy person, nor to a healthy city ; there must 
be the condition to receive the disease. But another city may show reason- 
able care for its health, and the result will not be so serious. The third 
city may use the utmost diligence and exercise the fullest care and unceasing 
watchfulness over its health ; and disease would never obtain a foothold 
there. It is simply a question of willingness to try. In the languid climes 
the people are thoroughly devoid of the desire to make an effort, and the 
hand of death knocks suddenly at their doors. It is but the logical law of 
cause and effect. Each human being is in one of three conditions ; negli- 
gence as to health, care, and great care. The latter are always the sickly 
who commence only after disease has nearly felled them. The most robust 
person in the world is gradually succumbing to the inroads of disease ; but 
he will not give heed until the danger signal is raised. The highest intelli- 
gence must accompany the more careful regime. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCV. 
Evolution of Intelligence. — If one man knows what millions are 
incapable of appreciating, and millions more are unable to find out, how is 
it possible to prolong life by the instrumentality of knowledge. It is more 
than likely that the one intelligent man may have ruined his health by his 
studies, and thus invited death in the act of trying to learn how to avert it. 
Ignorance is certainly the cause of death, and knowledge may lead to the 
duration of life. Knowledge accompanied by the widely prevailing indiffer- 
ence and unwillingness to make the effort necessary to prolong life, is the 
sum and substance of the necessity of death. If a man is drifting in quiet 
waters toward the cataract, and does not know the falls are ahead, he dies 
through ignorance. If he does know the falls are ahead and says: "Never 
mind, do not trouble me with these unpleasant things," he lacks willingness 
to make an effort in his own behalf. If he is willing to row against the 
stream he eventually decides that it requires continual effort, and the relax- 
ation is the cause of death. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCVI. 
Possible Destiny of the Body. — I do not hesitate to say that a man 
may, by continually rowing against the stream of fate, avert death. How 



472 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

long we cannot know, as no one has been found willing to try. All persons, 
old or young, may add much to life ; and I know that age may not only be 
checked, but may be set back ; just as the hands of the clock, hurrying to 
the stroke of twelve, may be set at eleven or ten. The body is weaving new 
tissues all the time ; why may not a new body be constructed out of purer 
food? The time may come when some man, having both knowledge and 
persistency, will test the question of the possibility of an extended duration 
of life. Physiology shows that there are reasons for expecting this. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCYII. 

General Destiny of the Body. — Man being ignorant of his possi- 
bilities, or, when having knowledge, being unable to maintain an unceasing 
ejffort against the encroachment of death, is in fact a creature born to die. 
Accident or the merest trifle may terminate the existence of the most careful 
and most persistent savant. Were it possible to guard against age, no man 
can guarantee himself immunity from dangers or accidents. The only con- 
clusion is, that death is the natural end of a temporary life ; and, if this 
life is a conflict, all should be willing to die. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCVIIL 
Fate of the Body. — Religion has no concern with the question of the 
fate of the body. Theology has advanced all kinds of theories, as absurd 
as many of its claims are ; and, after all, it makes no difference. If we do 
our duty here, God will settle the problem hereafter. Lay aside such use- 
less theology. How many good friends have parted in anger over this vex- 
ing question that should not concern them. We accept the teachings of the 
Fathers, yet they taught that the theory of the rotundity of the earth was 
heresy. So theologians teach that we must believe that these our bodies, 
particle for particle, live agais hereafter, as though the butterfly could again 
be the worm. All thinking people know that every human body is made 
up of the particles of millions of human beings, and of animals and vege- 
tables of a preceding age. Like the tree it returns to its constituent Atoms, 
and is found scattered over the earth in multitudinous forms. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 473 

LESSON DCCCCIX. 
Solace in Death. — The true philosophy of death teaches that it is but 
the end of a long conflict, and the beginning of the knowledge of all things. 
How gladly the battle-worn soldier dies ! How cheerfully the wasted patient 
falls into the embrace of death ! How willingly the tired body sinks into 
sleep ! If the end of life is the conclusion of a long and relentless conflict, 
it is also the closing of the gates of ignorance. The wisest of humanity 
knows nothing. The opening wide of the great portals of knowledge ought 
to be the one chief solace in the hour of death. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCX. 
What we Shall Know, — When the conflict is ended we shall know 
the best or the worst. Aside from the promised knowledge of our faith, 
there must come the solution of the mysteries. If we know the worst, it 
will be as the advancing of a great conflagration that consumes all within its 
path. If we know the best, the fire of conflict will cease as we rise from 
the dead. The far-reaching horizon of Heaven will shine with the light of 
immortal peace. We shall know what earth is, and how it came to be ; we 
shall know the planets, and their satellites ; the suns and the laws that give 
them life ; the secrets of color, of heat, light, weight and electricity ; and 
all the wonders of the sky, leading us up to the courts of Heaven. We 
shall know God. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXL 

The Morning of Immortality. — Like one who rises refreshed from a 
troubled dream in the blissful reality of safety from the conflict just ended, 
is the soul that emerges out of death into the peace of Heaven. In the 
study of destiny we must seek some light on the character of the great 
finality. What is the first impression of that dawning which follows death? 
Many of the statements made in this Philosophy are new to the world, but 
as conclusions only; they are old in fact, and the knowledge on which they 
rest is musty with age. I have simply used facts which are universal, and 
from them have drawn conclusions that may be new. It is as though the 
parts of an engine had been constructed, and now for the first time were put 
together. The conclusion is the summary of the great facts already estab- 



474 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



lished. In all the Lessons and Tomes of this Philosophy thus far I have 
stated nothing to be a fact, which I do not know to be true ; and this knowl- 
edge has not in any part a share of mere belief. The things are facts, and 
the facts are things. I do not claim as much for what I am about to state. 
Many of the remaining Lessons are built upon conclusions that seem to me 
to be the only possible inferences from the great facts already stated. I 
thoroughly believe them and have many reasons for so doing, which I shall 
either state as I unfold the Lessons, or shall reserve for certain supplementary 
works which I will take pleasure in presenting to all my pupils. Many 
further extensions of these great themes will appear from time to time. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXIT. 

God. — It cannot be possible that God had a beginning. If it is diffi- 
cult to conceive such a profound thought as the eternity of the past, it would 
be equally difficult to conceive God as having an origin. All existence 
must have a cause. God cannot be a self-creator. He could not originate 
Himself. If that were possible, there must be a greater creator ; and it is 
the final power that we are seeking. Therefore as every existence must 
have a cause in order to come into being, and as God could not have been 
the cause of His own existence, He must have lived always. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXIII. 

Appearance of God. — I do not believe that God is a mere light, a 
mere presence, a mere intelligence. He must be all these and more. I am 
sure, as I have repeatedly said, that man is in part God, in so far as his body 
is seeking to emerge from the bad by the development of the good. As bad 
prevails, the animal, the cur, the reptile, stamp their characters on the human 
face ; but goodness raises the form and gives it all the grandeur of manli- 
ness. I therefore conclude that the Devil is a reptile in shape, if shape he 
has at all. Man is made in the image of God, or else in the image of his 
creator. As the latter is the combined energy of God and Satan, man would 
represent a compromise appearance of both. The true appearance of God 
must be as far beyond man, as man is beyond the hideous bloat who has 
fallen through alcohol, or the reptile that hisses its venomous breath at some 



DESTINY. 476 

innocent life. Our Creator is all-God and all-good ; man is half-God and 
half-good. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXrV. 
Origin of Satan. — We have spoken of man as the resviltof the double 
energy of good and evil, and have learned of his origin in this way; but 
Satan himself, as a distinct being, either lives in his influence, or in his real 
person. God must have a home and that home is called Heaven. Satan, if 
a real and substantial being, must have a home. There are many reasons 
for believing that no such home exists. The sky has no caverns, no hidden 
subterranean fires, no place for Hell, nor does the Bible claim this. Heaven 
is a central mass of matter, which the telescope could discern were we a few 
stars nearer to it. Satan was either the co-ruler of Heaven, or a lesser being. 
In the former case he has always been co-existent with God, and eternal ; in 
the latter case he is the offspring of God. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXY. 
Eternity of Satan. — A.sGod is incapable, through His omniscience, of 
creating so bad a being as Satan, the latter must have been eternal. On this 
theory we may explain the problems which arise at every stage of study. 
Nor does the Bible dispute the claim. On the other hand, it favors it, and 
seems to aver it. If Satan and God have always lived, I do not believe they 
have always been at war. In the tremendous seons of eternity there must 
have been peace and joint rule. It is not good for man to be alone. It was 
not God-like to reign alone. The facts, and facts they must be, are clear 
and strong : God and Satan were joint rulers from all eternity, until the 
separation came. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXVI. 
The Separation. — Satan is now the foe of God. This is clear. It 
is believed that he is a fallen angel. This is not in dispute. The cause and 
manner of separation are beyond human ken. The time was when the blow 
came. That God, even as joint-ruler, was the superior of the two, is mani- 
fest in all ways, if religion is to be trusted. But if Satan is stronger in 
the word, as he seems to be, why may it not be true that God was overcome, 



476 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 

and that Satan is king of Heaven. Religion declares otherwise in the most 
positive terms. But the law of life speaks also. Malice and Hatred are 
concomitants of defeat. The Victor seeks peace and has no thought for 
revenge. It cannot be in doubt that Satan is the outcast of Heaven ; but 
powerful still. If God has conquered him He has not yet destroyed him. 
The horrible presence of this arch-fiend is too much in proof. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXVII. 
Double-Creation. — The probabilities are that Satan sought the over- 
throw of God, or refused to rule jointly in lesser power. The hand of jus- 
tice, that knew only justice, dealt the blow with energy, and the consort of 
the Great Ruler was defeated. Satan had been, under some glorious name, 
the companion of God. The relations of wife have been ascribed in various 
theologies ; but with this we have no concern, and the probabilities do not 
favor it. The old Hebrew test says : In the beginning the Gods created the 
Heaven and the earth. Moses and all the ancient patriarchs used the plural 
form, and it renains so to-day. Man, — being the conflict of the forces of 
God and His former co-ruler, Satan, — was in fact created by eloMm, or the 
Gods. The fact is apparent in other ways, as well as through the conclu- 
sive statements of the Bible. We will see how this double-creation came 
about. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXYIII. 
Destruction of Satan. — God fought with His own weapons. His 
wrath was not made manifest by a blow of the upraised hand, or by a spear 
or javelin, or by instruments of His invention. Against all such the ex- 
istence of Satan would have been invincible. With no vital parts subject 
to the assault of ordinary weapons, recourse was necessary to extraordinary 
means. A divinity is invulnerable, as we look upon death. Every part is 
life ; and, when the integrity of the whole is destroyed, the disintegrated 
portions are full of life. As a personal being, Satan must have met his 
doom in the first great blow dealt him by God. But as Satan was a divinity, 
the destruction was of his body as a being ; in just the same way that we 
are to die. The shape and general life are simply reduced to their compo- 
nent molecules and Atoms. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 477 



LESSON DCCCCXIX. 

Law of Disintegration. — Nothing disintegrates that is not a part 
of Satan. As nothing is free from the life of the Evil One, for all things 
are made in part out of such life, so nothing fails to disintegrate. Thus 
the manner of Satan's destruction is duplicated in the fate of all things 
having a part of Satan in their composition. Flowers, plants, trees, beasts 
and man — souls even — follow the Satanic doom. You cannot bring me any- 
thing that is not partly composed of the body of Satan ; and you cannot 
bring me anything that is not sure to disintegrate. You cannot bring me 
anything, nor imagine anything that will disintegrate unless Satan is in its 
composition. Disintegration is the destruction of the entirety of an exist- 
ence, without annihilating its component Atoms. These are indestructible. 
God could not slay Satan ; but destroyed his existence as a being, or integral 
life. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXX. 
The Great Battle. — The Atoms of Heaven, the Atomic life of God, 
the breath of His soul, went forth as weapons against Satan. No other 
warfare was possible. The great co-ruler was destroyed, and his substance 
was scattered to the four quarters of the sky. Out from Heaven, away 
from their home, on, on through the realms of space, the Atomic-weapons 
of God drove Satan and his warring hosts, in numberless millions. 
" He, ou his impious foes right onward drove, 
Gloomy as night. Under his burning wheels 
The steadfast Empyrean shook throughout. * * * 
Yet half his strength he put not forth, but checked 
His thunder in mid volley ; for he meant 
Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven." 

Milton : Pai-adise Lost. Book VI. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the eud of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXI. 
Protection of Heaven. — If we look toward any portion of the sky on 
a clear night we see an endless array of stars. These are the frontiers of 
space, as far from the courts of Heaven as is necessary to protect that abode 



■478 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 

from all knowledge of the conflict. When the Atoms of God drove the 
disintegrated Atoms of Satan out of Heaven, they fled across the sky in every 
direction. If I were to draw a picture of the universe I would place 
Heaven in the center, with myriad lines of light urging forward from it in 
all directions toward the extremes of space, driving masses of Atoms before 
them, and rolling up in orbs as they reached the farthest verge of the sky. 
As it is here that the agents of God cease to advance, it must be here that 
the conflict occurs ; and consequently that the suns are formed. A sun is 
but the battle of these two forces. All worlds are emanations from the suns, 
or efforts to disengage from the hottest of the fight. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXII. 
Destiny of Matter. — The first purpose of God must be to protect 
Heaven; and none of the Atoms of Satan can ever approach that abode. 
The Evil One has no integral existence to-day. He lives in his dust, but 
each particle of dust carries an intelligence of evil and direst malice. Its 
hope is combination. It lives to attack. As an Atom it seeks others of its 
kind, and man's destruction, body and soul, is the goal of its purpose. God 
is powerless to destroy Satan, except through his own means and by long 
processes of time. He is able to keep the dust of Satan at an immense dis- 
tance from Heaven. He is able to meet every Evil Atom with a good Atom, 
and to maintain this hand to hand conflict through endless periods of eter- 
nity. But matter has a fixed destiny ; and we shall see what it is. The 
battles are the suns, the planetary orbs are the emanations of Atoms from 
the suns. Growth is combinations of Atoms in the seeming quietude of 
lesser conflict. Vegetation is growth leaning manward toward God. Man is 
growth leaning Godward. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXIII. 
Destiny of Atoms. — Thus the agent-Atoms of God, after service in 
hand to hand conflict with evil, are seeking to extricate themselves from the 
entanglements of Satan. As Atomic intelligences they will succeed. As 
collective intelligences they will fail in part. By this I mean that the 
Atoms sent forth in God's service to protect Heaven, will eventually return 
to that abode. But this act of justice does not imply that every combination 



DESTINY. 479 



will get to Heaven. Thus man is the combination of millions of Atoms ; 
each Atom will eventually return to God, but each man will not therefore 
share this fate. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXIV. 
Process of Fate. — I am satisfied that a human being is the highest 
combination of Atoms ; that the collective intelligence of the fourth soul, 
called the human soul, is the sum total of good and bad ; that either good or 
bad must prevail at the time of death ; and that the survival of the good is 
the only hope of Heaven. In subsequent lessons I shall show the nature of 
this process in and through the death of man. At the present time I wish 
to trace the fate of matter. 

For Essays ou this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXY. 

The End of the Universe. — There is abundant proof of the exist- 
ence of Atoms without Pul, or intelligence. From the nature of the disso- 
lution which follows death, it is evident that the intelligence may desert the 
Atom ; and this is the fact. After death, the good as an entirety leaves and 
takes with it the pul of every Atom ; or the bad as an entirety leaves and 
takes with it the pul of every Atom. The Atoms so left are ever after 
PUL-less, and exist as minerals or earth, and as the great expanse of waste 
which occupies so much of every cooled orb. When the last life emanates from 
it, the planet will be left to roam through its course, an automaton in space. 
Thus the moon is to-day ; and thus may be the other planets of our system. 
There will be no explosion of the earth, no wasting away through loss ; but 
the sun will gradually give up its heat by the escape of the agents of its 
conflict, and it will dissipate like so much vapor. The flame of a candle 
has as much substance as the sun ; and the latter will vanish as fire goes out 
leaving absolutely nothing behind. In the great end of planetary life and 
in the after epochs of the endless day called eternity, all the suns will have 
gone out, and all the planets will be cold ice-worlds drifting through the sky 
as monuments of the folly which made Satan the enemy of God. Thus Satan 
can never be destroyed, but his life may be taken from him. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



480 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

LESSON DCCCCXXVI. 
Man and Fate. — In previous lessons I have spoken of the four souls 
of man as an earthly being : the lowest, or vegetable; the second, or animal; 
the third, or mental; and the fourth, or human. The first is for growth, the 
second for action, the third for thought, or intelligent action, and the fourth 
for feeling or moral and responsible action. In the law of inclusion, one 
becomes blended with the other. Thus a complete man has but one soul, of 
a four part construction. The higher animal has but one soul of a three 
part construction. When the animal dies nothing can live afterwards. 
When man dies, nothing may live afterwards. The human soul is the 
highest possibility of the ordinary composite man. Yet it is but four-fold. 
When it dies why need anything survive ? The fifth is necessary. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXVII. 

Immortality. — Before a man dies the peace of immortality must be 
achieved. I now come to some facts which are not in doubt. The vital 
soul of the lowest life, called vegetable, dissipates at death and is re-absorbed. 
The same is true of the non-mental animal, and of the mental animal; 
but the existence known as human is not so terminated. It is the collective 
spirit of God or of Satan, and its fate is different. If man has achieved the 
peace of immortality his humanity passes at once after death to the meta- 
morphosis of his final self, and the life is next found in Heaven. But if 
such peace has not been found the transition never occurs. His vital nature 
is climaxed in the human soul ; this leaves the Atomic mass as an entirety, 
and ever more becomes a wandering vitality. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXVIII. 

Wandering Vitality. — Electricity in the human body is part of its 
life; but, as I stated in the Tome on ANGS and DEVS, that force in matter 
called lightning, whether found in the clouds or in substances, is of the Devil. 
It kills and seeks to kill. It differs from the vital-electricity of the living 
body in many ways. Franklin found that the lightning of the thunder 
storm was like the electricity of the commercial world ; but no scientist 
states that either is like that of the body; while physiologists declare that 
human electricity is not the same as that found in matter. It is partly of 



DESTINY. 481 

the same nature, and I believe it is composed in part of common electricity. 
"When a man dies his soul, if worthy, passes, through its metamorphosis, to 
Heaven; if unworthy, it becomes a wandering vitality. 

For Essays on this sulyect, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXIX. 
Electricity and Death. — Believing this to be true I put it to the test, 
and I shall ask my pupils to seek to satisfy themselves of the facts of the 
processes that follow death. I have spoken in "Higher Magnetism" 
of the instruments which may be used in such experiments. It was only 
after many years of investigation that I became satisfied that electrical results 
followed certain deaths. If you have any means of measuring electrical 
effects, apply them in the presence of dissolution. The tree does not die ; 
its life dreams itself away. The animal gives up glame, not electricity in 
its fullest and strictest term ; and the electrical apparatus shows but little 
change. Not so with the departure of certain human lives. AU scientists 
have the means of testing electrical presence. The skillful electrician is 
able to provide delicate apparatus to record all phenomena of this kind. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXX. 
At the Death. — None, perhaps, have thought to apply it to the human 
body at the moment of dying. To those who care to pursue the experiment, 
some distinct surprises are in store. Insulate a criminal and connect even 
the common Leyden jar to his body, and allow it to remain until the body is 
cold. The result will be two-fold : the storage of electricity at the instant 
of death, and the addition to it for some time thereafter. This experiment 
is simple ; but its first surprise is found in the attempt to collect electricity 
from the death of a person who has made his ])eace, and is in harmony with 
goodness and purity. In the latter case the vitality remains and glides 
gently out and away. In the case of the criminal the vital energy is mere 
mechanical electricity, and may be used as such. 

For Essays on this sn})jeft, see ''Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXXI. 

Evil Life After Death. — For the foregoing reasons I believe that 
when the Devil triumphs in life, the energy that remains after death becomes 
common electricity. It is ca])able of killing. It pervades the air, the earth, 

31 



482 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 

and all substances; is conducted better through some media than through 
others, and while it is seeking its equilibrium it never is at rest. When 
Satan and his hosts were destroyed in Heaven, his disintegration resulted in 
the scattering of the countless Atoms through all space. Each Atom con- 
sisted of its substance and its vitality. Through processes which are natural 
and easily verified, these Atoms being driven by the agent- Atoms of God, 
fought out their great battles far from Heaven, and their final battle in the 
lives of men. God destroyed the integral existence of Satan ; but, as Satan 
was once the co-Ruler of Heaven and as immortal as God Himself, it was 
impossible to annihilate the Atoms; and each Atom shall live in its substance 
as cold matter merely rolling ever through space. But the Atom has both 
substance and vitality. The latter is separated from it at death, and at once 
becomes common electricity, dormant through all the countless eras of the 
dead history of the future ; and active only when excited. The evil of 
to-day will become the common electricity and clay of some coming age. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXXII. 

Emanations. — It is important to keep in mind the various emanations 
of living matter. I know of no way of tracing the death of vegetation. 
The animal vitality is substantial glame, a higher vegetation, as man is a 
higher animal. Apparatus can be made to show the nature of such depart- 
ing vitality, but none (as yet at least), can be found to trace the life speed of 
a dying plant or tree. Man interests us chiefly. I divide all human beings 
at death into two classes : first, those who are in harmony with peace ; sec- 
ond, those whose souls are in discord. Let any man who cares to know the 
truth, seek the aid of any electrician and construct the proper apparatus for 
receiving the effects of human dissolution. It requires but a knowledge 
of the principles, and ingenuity of arrangement. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXXHI. 
Phenomena. — Among the early phenomena that have accompanied 
death, that which first attracted my attention was the stopping of a clock at 
the very instant when the heart ceased to beat. I then regarded it as a mere 
coincidence. Some years later I observed the same thing when a relative 
died. In both cases I examined the clocks and found them properly wound. 



DESTINY. 483 



and capable of running for some time ; which they did on being started. 
Both were pendulum-clocks. I could not understand what connection 
there was between the swinging of a pendulum and the death of a man. 
In letters received from the thousands of men and women who write to 
me I have been told of this and other phenomena occurring at the time of 
dissolution. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end oC Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXXIV. 

Explanations. — I was led to believe that a certain energy leaves the 
body at death and passes in a fixed direction. It may not seem strange that 
a person of my investigating disposition would naturally be prompted to test 
these things. I ask those who desire to become familiar with many things 
not generally known, to take as much interest in examining these phenomena 
of the dead, as they take in ))robing the once supposed phenomena of life 
in many of its phases. If it is true that our energy moves forward in a 
fixed direction when the vitality leaves the body, it must have at least the 
power of a finger touch, and that alone is sufficient to arrest the swinging of 
a pendulum. 

For Essays on this subject, see ''Rules lor Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCC( XXXV. 
The Path. — The walls of a room are but slightly affected by this 
phenomenon, and there is no doubt but that a passing soul might easily go 
through solid walls regardless of their thickness. A life that gives up 
common electricity cannot always be traced in the course of its soul (as we 
call the vitality), if the room is very damp, as the air is then a conductor of 
electricity. But in the majority of cases the following experiment is worth 
trying : place lighted candles and steel pendulums in various positions, 
especially at attitudes above the dying person. Arrange that the pendulums 
shall swing from some slight power that will keep them going as lightly as 
the clock is run. These may be put in every room in the house. On the 
instant of death, the path of the soul, or energy, may be easily detected. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXXVI. 

Bells. — The hanging of small bells to steel spring fiat wires, in various 
rooms in a house will generally result in certain of them being swung 



484 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



violently ; but this is not so satisfactory as the pendulums. The latter are 
stopped and the path may afterwards be studied. Candles are sometimes 
blown out, especially if they are elevated. But the bells may be rung but 
lightly and cease at once ; and when rung violently the time is brief. The 
fact is clear that some distinct energy passes onward and generally upward, 
in a fixed direction. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXXVII. 

Meters. — A person might ridicule the possibility of measuring one's 
vital energy in life ; but not only is it possible, but certain, that the time is 
not far distant, when the thought-waves of the mind and the electrical 
vitality of the body in health, in sickness, and in approaching death, will be 
known as well as the quantity and intensity of electricity in any material 
objects that are now measured. Every electrical current has strength and every 
electrician of skill can measure the degree, the power, the quantity, or the 
intensity of this species of vitality. Some persons are measured negatively, 
— that is, the amount of resistance is known. But all may be measured 
affirmatively. Already many ingenious devices have been invented which 
embody this idea; and certain finely balanced needles are susceptible to 
human electricity. The variations of color are received through instruments 
of delicate construction, and why not those of something that is stronger 
than color ? 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXXXVIII. 
Kinds of Electricity. — What do you say to the experiment of catch- 
ing and bottling the electricity that emanates from the act of dissolution ? 
Scientists who know that it can be done may say that it is but ordinary elec- 
tricity after all. So it is ; and it is like all other ordinary electricity. The 
higher form of electricity I do not call common, for it is human and God- 
like in the better man. It is the vitality of an immortal life ; and in direct 
alliance with God. It cannot be caught in a Ley den jar, nor held in impris- 
onment. But one whose life is discord cannot give birth to such a form of 
electricity ; his emanation is the common kind, and this may always be im- 
prisoned for a certain length of time. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 485 

LESSON DCCCCXXXIX. 
God and Vitality. — I presume that many people go through life as 
mere storage batteries of common electricity which they give up as their 
only act of death. But the man whose life is at peace with God and at war 
with the devil, comes into the possession of a different and nobler vitality, 
something that we may call the divine electricity. The common is always 
in the state of unrest, as we all know ; and so is the criminal soul ; the 
divine is the energy of supreme peace, and its presence in our lives is never 
mistaken. By the very law of affinity the death of the righteous should be 
but the easy transition from earth to Heaven, for the electrified soul flies 
to God as steel seeks the magnet. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXL. 

The Majority. — The great majority of men and women who die yield 
forth common electricity, and sink into oblivion. The number of those who 
inherit immortality is exceedingly small com])ared with those who are 
destroyed. I do not see how the anti-racials, and nine-tenths of the Cauca- 
sians can dwell with God. He cast the Devil from Heaven at one time, to 
get rid of him ; and on what principle is He now going to receive back His 
agents? There is ample authority for the belief that Satan fell from a high 
estate in Heaven, and the Bible led Milton to accept that belief as the 
absolute truth. All thinking people must agree that the God-haters of 
earth are part and parcel of the same Devil that was cast out. It is the 
height of absurdity from the standpoint of reason, and the direct lie to all 
religion, to claim that every human being will ultimately be saved. The 
fact is that far less than ten per cent, will reach that goal. The God-haters 
are already outcasts, in the lineal descendancy of their great ancestor. The 
Bible tells us that few, few indeed, will be chosen, and the New Testament 
reiterates the doctrine. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXLI. 
Hell. — I believe that the law of disintegration, which began when God 
drove Satan from Heaven, has been in operation ever since as the sole con- 
sequence of that expulsion. Since all things die there must be a cause and 
a reason. Disintegration has been the greatest law of earth and life. 



486 HOME COURSE IN FHILOSOPHY—TOME TEN. 



Nothing can escape it. The body of the sinner and the saint each goes the 
same way. The soul of each became perfected at the time of quickening, 
and has remained a perfect human soul all through life, carrying the double 
nature and waiting for the grand finale. But victory fails, for life was mis- 
judged and God has been hated. When the sinner goes down into the dark 
valley he is conscious of his fate. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXLIl. 
Duration of Hell. — A second is as a lifetime to the wretched fool who 
sneered at goodness when alive, and is now wrestling with the torments of 
disintegration after death; just as a lifetime is as a second to God. Place 
a piece of ice under the arm at the left side of a sleeping person ; in one 
brief instant he awakes ; but he will relate to you the events of a long and 
complicated dream, probably located in some icy clime. So all dreams are 
of but a second's duration, yet may occupy the complications of a long period 
of time. A drowning man in an instant lives over his whole career ; and 
seconds seem years. In like manner the intelligence that is part of the per- 
son who dies, may loiter a day, or two, or three, in its integral form, before 
it mingles with the great equilibrium that floats in all matter, and its identity 
is lost. A day has many hours ; an hour has many seconds ; and each sec- 
ond may seem an eternity to the dying soul. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXLIII. 
Sufferings of Hell. — In the disintegration that follows death, the 
agony of the knowledge of a lost immortality is intense. The general break- 
ing up of a life of discord is filled with anguish, like a harsh note that jars 
upon the ear and gives it pain. Be the actual time ever so short, the 
experience of the sufferings of hell is keen and interminably prolonged. 
The sun is all fire, and all fire is horrible pain ; so the disintegrating soul is 
tortured with the same anguish, in multiform intensity, that greets the 
martyr who is roasted at the stake. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXLIV. 
Purgatory. — There is no middle ground. The slight suspense of the 
judgment of destruction is all the purgatory that exists, and this is the experi- 



DESTINY. 487 



ence just described. As such, purgatory is the intervening experience between 
earth and oblivion ; not between earth and Heaven. There is no place where 
the unsaved soul may enter a new probation. Death is the all, and the end- 
all of the wicked — except that the sufferings of hell (or disintegration, 
which is the same) supply a terrible remorse that endures as an intelligence, 
possibly time without end. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXLV. 
Preparations. — As death closes the account, and there is no court of 
appeal beyond, it is important that every person should make due prepara- 
tion for the end. The earthly life should be in accord with the demands of 
God ; and one's avocations should suit the making of such |)reparations. 
We commence to weave our destiny the moment we begin to act for our- 
selves. The perfect human soul that is formed before birth is merely the 
sum total of the ancestry that precedes it. It is ended in death, and gives 
way to one thing or the other. We are, as human souls, children of acci- 
dent ; and this is our misfortune ; but the law of chance is ever being 
moulded by our will. We can make accident fall one way or the other. 

For Essays on this siibject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXLVI. 
Destiny of Life. — This moulding of the law of chance is so often 
proved in the lives about us that we ought ere this to recognize and to act 
upon it. The mere wish of the heart turns the energies of the body toward 
its execution. I often found this law to be true, not in my life alone, but 
in the experiences of others ; and I wondered at it. Now, after years of 
analysis I understand the working of the law of chance, and it is this : 
wishing impels acting, and acting is a mere process of digestion. If a man 
wishes to become a great geologist, he is as the roots of a tree in the ground, 
whose fibers select from the soil only such materials as suit its purpose. He 
will mingle in his daily life with thousands of facts and materials, but he is 
consciously and unconsciously drawing to himself only those that suit his 
purpose. This is character-digestion and it is so all-powerful in its influence 
upon men and women that each may be said to be the arbiter of destiny in 
life. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays,'' at the end of Tome Ten. 



488 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

LESSON DCCCCXLVII. 

Continuity of Laws. — In the study of destiny in this life we find a 
wonderful operation, called the law of continuity, which is the continuity 
through all life of some law that may be found in the beginning of exist- 
ence. Thus it is seen that a compact consistency holds the universe together. 
The first great law is that of disintegration ; and its operation extends back 
to the scattering of the hosts of Satan through the sky, and forward to the 
end of the world. Likewise the intelligence known as digestion is the first 
great healing of the wounds of disintegration. I regard as digestion the 
selection of materials necessary to establish the combinations of growth. As 
soon as the leas-t quietude is found apart from the chaos of sun-life, this 
union is sought, and it is the working of the easy principle of like seeking 
like. Human life may then be described as the union of disintegrated parti- 
cles, occurring in the first approach to quietude after chaos. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXLVIII. 
The Narrow Margin. — Such life is not possible in the absolute repose 
of matter, and the narrow margin on which this existence rests seems amaz- 
ing. We know that the moon is in repose. Her solid fields of ice are com- 
posed of Atoms that are no longer agitated. What we call the life of plant, 
or man, or matter, is accompanied by agitation ; and let this cease or be 
reduced but little and death follows ; being invited, as it were, by the 
approach to repose. The sun is chaos excessive, coldness is chaos dimin- 
ished. All things that live must be in some condition between the extremes, 
and the margin is so small that, out of the scale of temperature, man can 
maintain life only at ninety-eight degrees, or close to that condition. We 
see him, therefore, the offspring of approaching quietude, with destruction 
by warmth or cold on either hand. Let the blood rise but a degree or two 
in temperature, or fall as much, and the danger of death threatens. His 
station is midway between the fiery sun and the frozen moon. The former 
represents disintegration in its greatest intensity ; the latter is absolute re- 
pose. The former is the beginning and the cause of life ; the latter is the 
doom of the material universe. From them we obtain hints of duty in the 
study of our destiny. 

For Essays on this subject, see -'Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 489 



LESSON DCCCCXLIX. 

Intelligent Selection. — Two laws surround us : disintegration and 
digestion. Not all combination is digestion ; for ice, earth and rock repre- 
sent the mere act of union. Digestion is intelligent selection of the parti- 
cles needed for the purpose of growth. The man or woman who would be 
better than the grovelling feeder must absorb intelligently ; and this is des- 
tiny's law. When the great Frenchman, from his position as Marshall of 
France, looked back to that time in his boyhood's pov^erty when he had de- 
clared that he wou/d some day be Marshall of his country, he but wound the 
circle of his hope with the entwined roses of wishing ; and all the materials 
of daily and yearly life passed before him as so much soil from which his 
purpose selected the grains that fed the growth of his ambition. So what 
we are is but the development of the character through the simple process 
of intelligent digestion. Fill the stomach with all kinds of food, and the 
nerve fibers will select only what the blood demands. The tree selects bet- 
ter than the art of man can devise. No skill of human invention can draw 
from the wealth of Nature the particles that build the rose. 

For Essays on this sulijcct, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCL. 

Tastes. — But in the scope of human power there is a large and widely 
open field of choice. It is what we choose that makes us what we are. 
Tastes become set, and after a while are automatic in their operation. Thus 
the influences of any calling direct our tastes often against our judgment, 
and always against our knowledge after the direction of the current has been 
fixed. The chief influence is the desire to acquire independence through the 
acquisition of means or affluence. It is easy for one who is hopelessly be- 
hind the opportunities of life to advise mankind that the desire for this 
world's goods is sinful ; but such advice emanates only from those who do 
not need or cannot get the good things that money may buy. The law taught 
us by Nature is, to limit excessive wealth in order that all people may 
get some share of the comforts of good living. The selfishness of the few 
millionaires, the stupid indifl^erence of the people to the necessity of making 
laws limiting wealth, and the corruption of legislators, force the young 
aspirant to seek affluence by unfair means ; thus selling his hope of the 



490 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



hereafter for present prospects. The love of money directs the current of 
all human destiny. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLI. 

Opportunities. — I believe that the way should be open to all men and 
women to acquire the comforts and luxuries even of this life, and to be inde- 
pendent in old age. The world is never so cruel as when it compels an old 
person to receive charity. The finest of earthy the sweetest comforts of 
home, should belong to the aged as of right. I also believe that the means of 
obtaining a just share of the wealth of the world should be open to all 
according to the ability of each, and this by a readjustment of society. It 
is false to say that all are now equally favored. It is not in any sense true. 
The distribution of wealth must always be grossly uneven ; and justice 
demands that it should be uneven ; but it should be logical in its unevenness. 
A few thousands of dollars will give a man the power to accelerate the 
absorption of property ; and the poor toiler becomes the contributor to his 
increase of this power. The millionaire not only absorbs in an increasing 
ratio, but controls the legislation that seeks to control him. The great law 
of Nature demands that the toiler should be supported in comfort through 
sickness and through age; and never be allowed to feel the slightest pangs 
of anxiety as to shelter, clothing and food ; and, until this right is accorded 
to him, the laborer will be degraded, and his life will be a reproach to the 
nation. You who have the opportunity to accomplish this revolution owe it 
to the great Code of Justice that it be undertaken at once. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLII. 
Statesmanship. — There is so much of politics in vogue in America 
to-day, under the tolerance of so-called Freedom, that the idea of states- 
manship has long since been laid aside. There is no man now living in 
political life in the United States, whose name will go down to history as a 
statesnian. I do not know of any opportunity for statesmanship except the 
reform of society. Here is the opening for the man or woman who seeks a 
profession ; and the opportunity is equally in the power of both sexes. Of 
all the avocations of life that of a profession is most sought after, because 
it is looked upon as cleaner, nicer, and more aesthetic than common toil. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTIXY. 49L 

LESSON DCCCCLIII. 
Avocations — An avocation is any human calling. Men and women 
are animals of the third degree only, if they simply eat, sleep and live ; no 
matter what degree of brain activity they may possess. An avocation is the 
impulse of the human, or fourth degree, which calls men and Avomen away from 
the animal. All beasts merely live ; but every human impulse is a call to 
a purpose. All avocations call us away from our lower selves ; and, if they 
are in tune with the harmony of a true life, they become stepping stones- 
toward the attainment of an immortal soul. 

For Essays on tliis subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the. end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLIV. 
Occupations and Professions. — An avocation may be an occupation 
or a profession. It is an occupation when it produces something, or adds 
something to the uses of mankind. Thus, all toilers are people of occupa- 
tion. An avocation becomes a profession when it seeks to remove or modify 
the ills of national, social, or individual life. I do not think any man or 
woman has a right to enter upon or accept any other avocation ; and, unless 
the calling now pursued, may stand the test of these definitions, the future of 
the soul is doomed. People who die in sin give their bodies to the dull clay 
and rocks, and their lives to the dead and common electricity which fills or 
hovers in all matter ; and the days of agony that stretch their seconds into 
teons, become the seemingly imperishable hell of such lives. Select a differ- 
ent destiny. Do not be influenced by the opinions of others who scoff at 
the idea of future destruction. If it is not a fact, God is not a fact ; for 
our knowledge of both comes from one and the same source. The test of 
an occupation is its power to produce or add to the uses of mankind. The 
test of a profession is its power to remove or modify the ills of life. And 
there are no other tests. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLY. 
Preferred Occupations. — The producer is the better of best men. 
The soil, the toiler, the growth : these are the parts of the noblest occujia- 
tion of life ; and, despite their shortcomings as weighed in the scale of 
common opinion, they are the first to win immortality. Heaven is full of 
farmers and farmers' wives. The artisan, in his independent employment 



492 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



as master of himself, as his own employer and employee, stands second in 
rank to the farmer. Next come the professions, and finally the employed 
laborer. A man has no right to let out his labor to another, except as his 
own master in the trade. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten 

LESSON DCCCCLVI. 
Destiny of the Labor Problem — When men will learn that fifteen 
millions cannot find employment to do the work required of only three 
millions, they will cease to crowd the ranks of the unemployed. Suppose 
all the inhabitants of America should turn laborers ; each would become 
the maker of his own clothing, and the demand would not exceed the indi- 
vidual needs of each. The solution of the labor problem is not in wages 
or agitation on a false basis ; but in sending the toilers to farms and teach- 
ing them that he who can build his own home from the timber of the soil, 
and win his food from the earth, is an independent being even if there is no 
market for his wheat and corn. Every man who seeks food and shelter 
from the corner of some tract of land is the equal of the wealthiest of the 
men who, in times of early American independence, became prosperous 
without a dollar. If a tobacco leaf would buy some luxury in the olden 
days of the great Virginian, an ear of corn will help to do the same thing 
now. Teach men to raise their own food, to raise their own houses, and, if 
need be, to raise the flax and silk to weave their own clothing. But the 
latter is hardly necessary. When men stop their endless journey to the 
great army of the unemployed, — and all laborers and all future artisans are 
marching to that fate, — then there will be an equilibrium in the nation, and 
the labor problem will settle itself. As it now is, we find unemployed 
millions (and they are all unemployed part of the time), seeking to force the 
employers to perform the impossible feat of giving five men the work that 
can easily be done by one. The mistake is in leaving the honest farms for 
the dishonest cities. If the men and women who could easily find oppor- 
tunities for living on farms, were to do so, the laborers and artisans who 
remained in towns and cities would have steady employment at high wages, 
and for two reasons : first, the farmers being of greater number would be- 
come more numerous buyers of the products of labor ; second, the laborers 
being less in numbers by reason of this reduction in their ranks, would have 



DESTINY. 493 

a greater amount of work given them to do. Thus, the solution of this 
problem depends upon the willingness of the aggrieved parties to be relieved. 
As an inducement to this equilibrium the farmers should be guaranteed 
their homes by the government, should not be permitted to mortgage or 
encumber them, and should upon conditions as suitable to the toiler as to the 
soldier, be paid an old age pension. Every move in this direction is easy, 
simple, direct, and may be speedy. Here is the opportunity for the states- 
man ; and I claim that there is not, and will not be in many years to come, 
any other field for the display of statesmanship. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLVII. 
Preferred Professions. — We have seen that the producer is the nearest 
to God, and that the independent artisan stands next. The third position in 
the scale is the profession. Some may claim that, as the professional man 
does good in the world, he is to be regarded as nearer to Heaven than the 
laborer. I do not think so. God commanded all to work. The doctor is 
the mender of the flesh, and is the agent of the real man. The minister 
encourages the beclouded mind to seek and find the light of peace and good- 
ness. He does not make him good, nor part with any of his own morality. 
He gives nothing and takes nothing. He is a human guide-post, as likely 
to go to Heaven for his good qualities, as the man he guides ; and as likely 
to be destroyed in hell for his unwillingness to protect the sheep of his flock 
by fighting the wolves of the devil, as the man who does not come under his 
ministrations. So I regard the honest farmers and the honest housewives as 
the great forerank of the army of immortals ; and I would not exchange 
places with the scurvy souls whose pens and whose tongues hurl the epithet 
of ''hay-seeds" at these noble men and women. Deformed of body and 
cramped of mind they may be, but for breadth of soul and true morality 
they can span with their wings the horizons of a hundred white-hearted 
loafers who make their living by their wits in the so-called literary 
profession. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLVIII. 
The Highest Profession — Statesmanship is higher and nobler than 
any of the other departments of professional life. All men and all women, 



494 HOMi: COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



great and little, may enter this profession. It does not require the training 
of the university nor the schooling of the theological seminary. A few 
things are necessary, and they are quickly told. First, honesty. Second, 
earnestness. Third, persistency. If you are honest you will gain the con- 
fidence of your fellow-beings and will rise ; you, if you do become a law- 
maker, will not allow yourself to be retained as counsel or adviser of any 
corporation or individual, as so many state and national representatives and 
senators do, and are at this day. If you are in earnest you will seek to 
re-adjust society, not by hotheaded and impracticable schemes, but through 
calm and intelligent methods. If you are persistent you will not be thwarted 
by failure, by the abuse of people and papers and the soft advice of friends 
who seek to make you believe that the hope of success is too small. The 
profession of statesmanship is far nobler than that of the ministry, for it 
reforms the evils of general life and produces the equilibrium which makes 
the prospect of church growth brighter and the salvation of mankind more 
logical. You should not offer a creed to a starving man. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLIX. 

The Ministry. — I have had a purpose in probing life to the bottom. 
I could not teach principles which I had not tested from experience. I may 
have been misjudged along the way, but the misjudgment of others has never 
•swerved me from the path of duty. And from the analysis of the early 
lives and failures of others, and their subsequent adoption of this profession I 
-conclude that nine out of every ten of the ministers now preaching were 
once seeking other means of gaining a livelihood. I am not questioning 
motives. The minister is already persecuted enough in that direction. But 
let the majority examine the direct causes which led to their entrance or first 
-choice of this profession, and deny to themselves, if they can, the assertion 
I have made. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLX. 

Purity of the Ministry. — One who seeks to be heralded as the direct 
representative of God should take care ! Trifling and insincerity may be 
passed over with less rebuke in other matters ; but in the ministry the man 



DESTINY. 495 



should be as clean as the white snow that floats from the clouds, and as pure 
in heart and motive as the impulse that turns the soul toward its God. 

Fi)r Essays on tliis subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXI. 
Re^vard. — The minister should be supported in the same luxury that 
any honest laborer gets, and all should have the best of earth; but he should 
not })reach for his money. He should be paid in order that he may live. 
He should handle large sums of money in his crusades against the Evil One, 
and every means should be afforded him for succeeding in his great pro- 
fession. But his reward is not to be measured in salary. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXn. 
True Preaching. — How idle is the life of the minister who prepares 
sermons during the week, preaches them on Sunday, attends to the routine 
duty of his church, eats, sleeps, and draws his salary. God never called a 
man to these duties ; and the pages of the Old and New Testaments are 
crowded brim full to the top with evidence to the contrary. I am sure that 
the duties of the minister are to organize, work and preach. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXIII. 
Organization. — The law of continuity follows from the Atom to the 
grave. The Atom combines, the molecule combines ; all life, all growth 
must be due to organized combination. Here is the first duty of the 
minister. Christ drew around him twelve disciples, tried, trusty, true. 
Where is Christianity to-day ? Here is the earliest evidence of organized 
effort. Every minister should have behind him, in his church, a body of 
men and women from whose hearts the emotion of hate has been eradicated 
as far as possible ; and these men and women should be pledged, life, body, 
mind and soul to stand by each other, and to fight calmly, consistently, but 
persistently to the end of their days against the power and growing influ- 
ence of Satan. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXIV. 
■Work. — Not only must the minister organize, but he must work. His 
work is to perfect and extend his organization. His co-workers must be 



496 HOME COUBSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

men and women who will work with him. They must be capable of 
harmony in their ranks. The work to be done has been stated and repeated 
in these Tomes. It is imperative work that has long been neglected. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXV. 
The Preacher. — The average minister deems it his duty to preach to 
the saved, to the faithful. That may be, but it is a secondary duty. He is 
called to preach to the unsaved; and this he cannot do from his pulpit. 
His oratorical efforts should be in three divisions : first, he should exhort 
and preach to his co-workers, to his body guard, and keep them working; 
this is the foremost of his obligations as a preacher. Second, he should 
speak through his organization and in person to the unsaved. Third, he 
should do pulpit work as a part of the service of God. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXVL 
The Physician — To review, we find that the farmer is closest to 
harmony, the independent artisan is second, the statesman is third, and the 
minister is fourth. Next comes the physician. His profession demands 
knowledge, care, skill and patience. It is an honorable avocation, so long as 
it is an honest one. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXVII. 
The Lawyer — The judge and the advocate are lawyers. They 
endorse their profession, and shower encomiums upon it ; on the theory that 
what needs praise should be praised. I know of no clergymen or physi- 
cians who deem it necessary to meet annually and to declare that the " 

profession is one of the noblest because it is capable, etc." The lawyer is 
the parasite of the law. The latter is necessary, but not its fungus growth. 
People insist that there are honest lawyers, but they say it in the same tone 
that declares there are dishonest ministers. I find the proportions about the 
same : for every honest lawyer there is somewhere a dishonest clergyman. 
And the exception proves the case. The general rank and file of the 
ministers are believed to be sincere and unspotted, because when one falls he 
is marked. The occasional honest lawyer attracts attention. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays" at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 497 



LESSON DCCCCLXVIII. 

The Legal Profession This is not a proper calling for a young man. 

It may be painted in hues of gold, but the paint is not the substance. 
There are good reasons for not entering this profession. In the first place 
there is no need of the profession. It is not difficult for a man to know 
what he intends ; and if he were left to his intentions, no trouble would 
arise. Mr. Tilden was one of the ablest lawyers of America ; he knew how 
he wished to transmit his property ; but the law declared that he did not. 
Few lawyers are great enough to execute the intention of their clients so 
that the law may not break it. In the old days when common sense pre- 
vailed, and quibbles were not cherished, the lawyers were forbidden to prac- 
tice, and peace prevailed. There is no case so complicated that cannot be 
simplified by a commission of business men ; and no case so simple that a 
common lawyer cannot complicate it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXIX. 
Fomenting Quarrels. — Lawyers, under the pretence of adjusting 
disputes, enlarge them. Few men would enter upon controversies that in- 
volve large costs, if the lawyers were not to be had. There should be com- 
missions of business men to settle disputes in their own way. The fixed 
general rules of law work injustice, because they cannot be specific. There 
are men out of the legal profession who can get at the truth, sift testimony, 
and deal out justice. The mouth of the lawyer is his largest feature, and 
it is annoying and tiresome. The best lawyers keep out of court. They 
become business agents of their clients, and keep them from litigation, rather 
than in it. Ninety-eight per cent, of the legal profession have no business 
ability. The average lawyer who undertakes to advise a jury is their 
inferior in every sense of the word. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXX. 

Dishonest Professions. — While the honest lawyers rarely ever 
permit their clients to become involved in litigation if it can be helped, 
the lawyers who are eager to sue or defend are after reputation. They seek 
to attract attention by some sensation, some case, some scandal, some public 
conflict, I believe that the whole system of court trials should be abolished. 

32 



498 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



A jury should consist of good men of trained judgment, not of the rabble 
and professional hangers on at court. Some mode of examining the wit- 
nesses without the aid of lawyers could be easily devised. The law in the 
case should be the twin rules of justice and common sense. Having spent 
years in following the lives of men engaged in this profession, I have but 
•one conclusion, and that is that justice miscarries five times to where it pre- 
vails once. With all the paraphernalia of the law and the courts, and the 
so-called wonderful system of practice, as aids to justice, the chances are that a 
few business men cauld do better to settle a hundred cases, than a court could 
deal with a dozen. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXI. 
Pleading. — When I was once present in court and saw a case of simple 
litigation turn upon the erroneous substitution of the word tort, where con- 
tract should have been used, and an honest client turned out of doors there- 
by, I resolved that I would not entertain respect for a system that is all 
snares. The science of pleading at common law is a disgrace to the civil- 
ization that permitted it. With declaration and plea, rebuttal, sur-rebuttal, 
re-joinder, surrejoinder, demurrer and motion, and a multitude of variations 
in the declaration, the slightest error of which would destroy the rights of 
the litigant, a man who asked for his week's wages through the process of 
the law stood as much chance of getting them as his lawyer did of getting 
his case properly made out. I ask any sensible man to read the old system 
of pleading, and then to define the word justice. Yet we are living under 
the shadow of this regime, even with the modified codes ; and so great states 
as those of New England, as well as others, are honeycombed with this 
ridiculous system. In Massachusetts alone, under her Practice Act, over 
half of all the cases demanding justice, are thrown out of court on techni- 
cal grounds. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXII. 
Advisers Not only is the law a dishonest profession, but it is a bar- 
rier to the achievement of goodness and purity of heart, even in after years. 
Not one lawyer in a hundred has a conscience. They pride themselves on 
their hardihood of heart, and absence of feeling. There is a branch of the 



DESTINY. 499 



law called counselling. This should be confined to the office. As adviser 
and as the business agent of his client, a man may be absolutely pure in heart. 
In court he cannot. I would like to see a new profession inaugurated called 
that of Advisers. The statesman can benefit society if he will devise some 
means whereby the world may obtain less law and more justice. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXIII. 
Teachers. — The teachers rank next to the physicians in the impor- 
tance of their professional rank ; the litigant lawyers being outcasts. The 
teachers are therefore the sixth in the scale. Their profession is a noble one, 
and upon their honesty depends the future of the children left in their care. 
I find that, as a rule, the teachers are of exemplary character. The avoca- 
tion is of the most honorable kind and is conducive to purity of heart. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXIV. 
Historians. — All who collect facts are historians. If any reporters 
may be found who collect only facts, they are historians. Newsgatherers 
are scavengers with a serious disadvantage against them : the ordinary scav- 
enger collects filth to destroy it; the newsgatherer collects filth to spread it 
before the nostrils of the public. The profession is lower than that of the 
gambler, the bawdy-house keeper, or the bartender. I would like to see in 
every county a weekly paper called " The Weekly History," and all con- 
nected with providing it with facts should be called historians. A litigant 
lawyer should be abolished, and a new profession of Advisers should be 
established ; so newsgatherers should be buried in the stench of their own 
rottenness, and a new profession of Historians should be created. Here are 
tasks for statesmanship, the greatest of the professions. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXV. 
The Choice. — A man makes his destiny by the avocation he accepts. 
If he has children I advise him to keep them high up in the order of life. 
The beauty of home and garden cannot be equalled in the glare of city life. 
What man or woman would not take pride in directing the care of a small 
farm, if it were made fashionable to dwell among purity and beauty fresh 



500 S03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



from the hand of God ? Whatever the choice made, let it be in the line of 
the life to come. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXVI. 

Business Many prefer to deal in merchandise and products. A 

business implies somebody to raise the products, and someone to labor upon 
the goods to be sold. If there were no farmers there could be no business. 
If there were no laborers there could be no business. The occupation is 
therefore an incidental one. It is here that the toiler is deprived of his 
rights, and the farmer of his price. The first mistake the farmer makes is 
to consign his goods and products. It were far better to raise nothing 
beyond the home supply, than to work and slave and drudge with wife and 
children helping, for the mere pittance paid by the consignee. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXVII. 
Compacts — I am interested in justice, and I know the farmers are 
robbed as no other men are robbed, year after year. If they will resolve to 
farm two years for home supplies only, they are sure to live as well as they 
do now ; and they would have the markets of America at their feet. Instead 
of consigning goods to dishonest merchants, why not undertake to protect 
themselves by compelling the merchants to call on them ? I advise an all- 
American agreement, including the adjoining countries if they will join, 
and an exclusion of their products if they will not join ; this agreement to 
run for two years, during which time no crops are to be sold except to 
farmers for home use, unless a price adequate to the value is received. By 
this means the status of the former could be raised to the level of the best 
of the world. It is their anxiety to sell that destroys their position. Let 
them refuse to sell, refuse as a body, and their products would rise so high 
in value that what is now sold for one dollar would then bring five ; a,nd 
one-fifth of a crop would be the equal of a full crop, with less physical and 
moral wear and tear in raising it. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXVIII. 
Dishonest Business. — There are certain kinds of bufcinets that are 
dishonest. Of course it is well known that everything connected with crime 



DESTINY. 601 

is unfit for men to engage in. No man has a right to do work for, or to 
contract with one who is carrying on a criminal business. Many liquor 
dealers hire churchmen to do their printing and other work. Owners of 
race tracks often employ religious people in the various departments of labor 
that are involved. These are bribes from the Evil One ; and, being money, 
are generally accepted. The devil, speaking in a good person, says: "The 
money of a sinner is just as good as the money of a saint, and I would be a 
fool to not take it." This is not the fact. All crimes differ from each 
other only in degree. The midnight murderer who pays you to bring him 
the knife with which to kill, makes you no more his associate than the 
liquor dealer who hires you to fit up his shop, or lease him the building. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXIX. 
Curses. — The law of digestion, following the doctrine of continuity, 
makes earnest ambition bear fruit, on the principle we have stated ; and, on 
the same principle, the work of evil and the associates of evil run to curses. 
This law involves no superstition, and is not wrapped in mystery. 
Your human soul is like the vitality of the plant which makes its selection 
from the materials of the soil. Like seeks like. The law of affinity draws 
to the good all the elements of good, and to the bad all the elements of the 
bad. Thus a good man who is shocked to-day at some account of evil, may 
tolerate it to-morrow and associate with it some days hence. The law of 
affinities, the seeking of like for like, the digestive principle, will fix the 
destiny of each and every human being ; and through these channels come 
the curses of life. Evil has its curse as good has its blessing. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXX. 
Destiny in Evil. — The curse of life is most easily seen to mature in 
the dramatic profession. The dramatic art is a noble one so long as it is used 
as a school of human nature ; but the desire to make money is not com- 
patible with any art. For this reason the dramatic profession is to-day 
a burlesque on the good things of life, and a long and loud song of wicked- 
ness. Years ago I heard and saw it stated that "people may be just as good 
on the stage as off." Suppose a clergyman had said "men may be just as 
good in the ministry as out of it." A statement is a forced allegation, when 



502 H03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



it defends unnecessarily any business or profession. I look upon stage-life 
as an example of the rapidity with which a man or woman may slide down 
the moral toboggan. It is the most striking illustration of speed in the ruin 
of character that the world ever furnishes. It should not be so, but it is. 
The only defenders of the stage are those who make money out of it. All 
honest, or conscience-smitten actors or actresses say, "It is ruin." The time 
of the better actors has passed. No curse hangs so heavily around the neck 
of the criminal as that which follows the miserable anguish of those who 
seek honor in this profession. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXI. 

The Army of Suicides It is easy in most cases to prove the identity 

and past lives of suicides; and the matter is well worth investigating. Not 
to mention the beer and liquor drinkers who succumb to Bright's disease in 
uncounted thousands, there is a steady and regular army of suicides in every 
year of this nation's history. You will say that discord leads to destruction 
and this is true; but there are certain occupations that lead to suicide, and 
these are clearly known. It is said that more actors commit self-destruction 
than all other classes ; but is this true ? Who ever heard of a gambler, a 
bartender, a sensational journalist, or any person engaged in nefarious life- 
work growing old ? The curse of destiny throttles their false lives ere the 
span is run. To show how fixed is the law of moral digestion, how almost 
mathematically correct may be its conclusions in advance, a party of investi- 
gating gentlemen named ten men who would commit suicide, and all died in 
that way within the designated time, the most prominent being Boulangor. 
In this rapid age evil leads to suicide; for this is the age of Freedom, and 
Freedom means unrestraint, or the right to go up or down as freely as one 
pleases. The freedom of to-day is chiefly the right to drift; and momentum, 
moral as well as physical, carries everything down stream. If you touch 
mankind on this tender spot you will find it sore; the voice of pain cries, 
" You have hurt my Freedom." So the plant, growing unrestrained, runs 
to vines and sucker-branches ; so the flowers growing untrained, are wild 
and scanty; so the garden with only its impulses of freedom, runs to weeds. 
And Freedom untamed by healthful restrictions, is license, debauchery and 
hell. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



DESTINY. 503 



LESSON DCCCCLXXXII. 

Happiness These lessons have dealt with the avocations of earth as 

matters to be chosen carefully. See that your son is either a statesman, a 
clergyman, a physician, or a teacher, if he is to enter any profession ; or 
that he is a farmer, an independent artisan, or a business man. Point out 
to him the avocations that lead to unhappiness. But why cannot he and 
you be in some profession or occupation, and, at the same time, produce 
something from the soil? Get away from the cities. Get a home, and air, and 
sky, and grass, and beauty, in the open country. There, alone, is perfect hap- 
piness. If country people are not tasty, help to give them culture. If they 
are not refined, help to inculcate in them the desire for the aesthetic. They 
are not green, for verdancy is always a relative term; and applies with 
crushing weight to the city people who visit the country. Who is the more 
verdant, the one who is not familiar with the things made by man, or the 
one who is not familiar with the things made by Nature ? Elevate country 
life, draw the farmers closer together, reduce the size of the farms, raise 
home supplies, irrigate the soil, and let every one who tills the land reap 
the richest rewards of happiness. Do not seek money first, and happiness 
never; but happiness first and prosperity ever. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXIII. 

Earth's Heaven. — There is no heaven in the human heart. It is 
extraneous. Poverty is a wall that all may climb, and contentment and 
poverty are theoretical. If you are poor come out of it. Lend yourself 
to some good work and friends will come to you ; or, if they do not, you 
may go to them. Be pure and clean and active ; and life's burdens will 
fall one by one from your shoulders. Ambition is good when its goal is 
good; it is glorious when its goal is human happiness. Up through the 
debris of failure, out from the wreck of misjudgment, seek to emerge into 
a better life. Your home in the city is not heaven, for the gaunt form of 
danger lingers just beyond its pales; and cares are heavy where Nature is 
scant. Heaven on earth consists of peace within the heart, and a home 
where flowers spring from the soil ; and fruits are growing in the orchard ; 
where the cares of the week are confined within the week ; and the church 
bell tolls the call to simple worship on every Sabbath morn. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



504 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXIV. 
Earth's Hell. — While it is true that many unfortunate poor are 
nearer to God than others, and are resigned to fate; it is not true that their 
heaven is in their hearts. Nor is it true that hell is with them in their 
misfortune. The denial of the extraneous means of happiness does not 
imply punishment of this kind. Hell is not a fact, either on earth, or 
beyond earth; except as hereinafter stated. It originated when God 
scattered the hosts of Satan through the sky. It then became discord, 
and is now discord ; and every degree of discord from the feeblest to the 
greatest is some degree of hell. The wicked are always unhappy. The 
joy of peace stamps the features of God upon the human face; the enjoy- 
ment of sin draws the face with hideous lines. Happiness is not a relative 
fact. It is the natural product of a good life. Discord grows as the 
pleasure of sin increases. It makes the heart insane. It leads to despera- 
tion, troubled sleep, and nervous wakefulness. It prompts the hot word, 
the blow, the murder. The woman who, in Vermont, a few weeks ago, 
killed all her children and then herself, was overvexed by her discordant 
life. So minds are dethroned, lives are wrecked, and all hope of Heaven 
is lost. The religious devotee who finds discord present in the heart, is not 
saved. Discord is the breath of Hell, and the very presence of Satan. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXy. 
Satan and Hell — I regard as hell that fire which accompanies, or is, 
disintegration. The sun is the war of Atoms that fail to come to rest. All 
fire is the same. It was this law that destroyed Satan in Heaven. God did 
with him, as Satan, in the name of the church, did with the martyrs, — 
burned them. Fire disintegrates. Satan was burned to death, and his 
Atoms scattered through the sky, like ashes in the air. His death was 
unlike the resurrection. He died and lives in his ashes. Man dies by 
disintegrating, and lives in the perfect form that was lost when Satan fell. 
The personal devil is a real personage, as man is real. Man is the growth 
of Atoms, and Satan lives only in man and as man. Thus is he personal. 
It is as though a million serpents of microscopic size were combined into 
one larger reptile. The latter is real, although composed of the lesser 
forms. Satan is hideous in his molecules and DEVS ; and these are seen 



DESTINY. 606 



even by the human brain, when the excitement of sin inflames the tissues. 
Thus the drunkard, the murderer, the sin-stained mind on the verge of life, 
sees demons as clearly as we see objects of normal size. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXVI. 

Sensations of Death. — The sinner, or any discordant human soul, 
when the body gives up its ghost, is at once in the midst of what must 
seem an actual hell. This appears often before death. Demons stand over 
the bed, but they are but the molecules and DEVS, exaggerated by the 
brain inflamed by the physical agony of death. A microscope, were it able 
to use light in so fine a realm, would easily show the same thing; but all 
scientists know that the brain under excitement is a greater magnifier than 
the best microscope ever invented by man. Fever, inflammation, death, 
all may excite the brain to see the Atoms and molecules and DEVS ) and 
so may the excessive generation of human electricity or magnetism, by such 
exercises as I have stated in the two books on Magnetism. Death generally 
occurs without this brain excitement and magnifying energy; but, when the 
act is done, the mind expands until it fills the space of many under-graduate 
brains; and it sees all. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXVII. 
First Sensation of Hell. — Some criminals have been oalled back, 
after the act was on. Their testimony, where it extends far enough, con- 
firms the theory of disintegration. It is like plucking the child from the fire, 
with the scars of the burning still visible. The man or woman who dies in 
discord instantly faces hell ; and the experience must be like that of the 
engineer, who rounded a curve at the speed of sixty miles an hour to find 
an opposing train dashing toward him on the same track. In the second of 
time that intervened, he felt the awful fate that crashed upon him like a 
flash. But the overwhelming realization of hell and destruction is followed 
by the breaking up of the vitality called mind ; and the sensation of intelli- 
gence is increased as many fold as is the magnifying power of the brain. 
This breaking up is actual disintegration, or separation of part from part, 
just as the Atoms of the burning log are separated by fire. The soul 
passes backward to its sun life, and burns until it settles into its electrical 



506 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 



equilibrium, and all is over. As reality is but a mental recognition, it must 
follow that the demons of hell and the fires that destroy the soul, seem as 
real to the sufferer as do the substantial torments of this life. This, then, 
is hell, — the inheritance of every discordant being. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXVIII. 
Purgatory — This is supposed to be a place of purging sin. I do not 
believe any such place exists. Only by straining the interpolations (not 
the real text) of the Bible, do some theologians find an excuse for creating 
this temporary home of probation. It is contrary to the w^ord of God, 
imperatively expressed a thousand times. It is contrary to all evidence. 
There can be no jhell, except the bottomless pit, which is the boundless air 
wherein the soul burns to its end. There can be but one Heaven, and that 
is the home of God. A soul is saved when the body dies, if it is at peace 
with God ; and, if it is not, the purgatory theory simply assumes that it is 
to be cleansed and made ready for Heaven. The divine part of man can- 
not be cleansed ; it is entangled with Satanic influences, and rises perfect 
from them when it leaves the body. It is either ready for Heaven or for 
hell ; and, if for the former, it is a perfect soul at the moment it rises. 
Purgatory is a compromise between God and Satan between whom no com- 
promise is possible. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCLXXXIX. 

Human Responsibility — Man can blame no being for the fact that 
he loses his soul at death. The child that falls into the fire is destroyed 
simply because fire destroys and the child fell into it. Be it accident, mis- 
chance or consequence, it is the operation of a fixed law. So the discordant 
soul, that is consumed, and ever after sleeps, can find no fault that a fixed 
law operated in his casie. Every man and woman is responsible for the 
future ; and this responsibility is never shifted. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXC. 
Propositions of Honesty — I believe that the key to the Chart of 
Religion is in one word — Honesty ! I believe that it unlocks every gate 
and opens the way to every avenue of a pure life. If one is honest, he is 



DESTINY. 507 



not lazj, but active ; not filthy, but clean ; not a drinker, but a church at- 
tendant ; not discordant, but full of harmony ; not mean, but charitable ; 
not Satanic, but Godlike. A man honest to himself, his family, and his 
God, will never allow a Sunday paper to enter his house nor a week-day 
sensational sheet to be read or patronized. So much is wrapped up in this 
one word — Honesty — that I have spent many years in collecting certain facts 
which I call propositions of honesty, and T find four hundred of these in 
the natural ethics of life. They run something like this : An Honest Man 
will not Gamble; An Honest Woman will not Gossip, and so on. I ask my 
pupils to work out these four hundred propositions and report them to me. 
The value of training is often found in the demands it makes on one's thought 
and powers of observation. To find out by delving is better than to be told 
and to forget. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCI. 

Salvation, — Salvation depends upon honesty, within and without. 
That this is true is admitted by all clergymen of all denominations. I 
quote here the exact words of a well-known preacher whose sermon is not a 
day old as I write these words : 

" It matters not," he said, " whether a man live through his span of 

life without committing any overt sin. By reason of the sin that is born 

within him he is already as surely damned as though he had sinned in his 

own flesh, llededication of the life within us to the service of God can 

alone save us from the wrath that follows the inborn sin. It matters not 

what the punishment may be called, whether one believes in an orthodox 

and material hell or whether remorse of conscience be all that is admitted, 

or whether the punishment is merely banishment from the presence of the 

Father. The punishment is heavy enough, for are we not told that the wages 
of sin is death?" 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCII. 
The Death of Peace When discord leaves the human soul the im- 
mortal hope is fixed. The influences of disintegrating evil are thrown off, 
and the good, the God-part, is able to emerge. That is the whole story. No 
one should seek death ; but, when it comes, it has no terrors. As surely as 



508 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



the evideaces of Satanic deaths prove tlie horrible anguish of the unsaved, 
so surely do the evidences of peaceful deaths prove the opposite. We obtain 
an idea of the j)leasure of this gentle yielding to the soft touch of fate, in 
the experience of one who resolves to overthrow sin and actually succeeds in 
doing so. There is a joy unspeakable in that condition which brings man 
into harmony with God. Let this be intensified, and we realize the supreme 
happiness of a peaceful death. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCIIL 
First Knowledge of God — The soul enters at death (if the life is at 
peace with God) into no fire, no disintegrating process, no electrical state ; 
nor does it linger in the realms of earth. The metamorphosis involves the 
immortal soul and its shell or ghost. The latter lingers for hours or days, 
and dissipates, as the glame of the animal life is scattered. This is really 
the ghost of the human, and is stamped with all the imperfections of the lat- 
ter, in face, form, and limb. It is the chrysalis of the immortal spirit. At 
xieath the change is instantaneous. A filood of light bursts on the mind, and 
earth is forgotten. A white, soft, clear sensation of perfect brightness, fills 
the thought and enraptures the soul. This is the evidence of those who have 
been called back from the gates of Heaven, at the moment of death. By 
called back, I mean the secondary return of those who have spoken of the 
glories beyond, ere yet the heart had ceased to beat. All clergymen know 
that dying men and women have retained some consciousness of earth in the 
brief flash between the last heart-beat and the first gleam of light beyond. 
From them I have obtained my knowledge of these things. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCIV. 
The Ghost. — A discordant soul bursts at once into hell. His soul 
passes through no metamorphosis, but travels hither and thither in agony. 
It may be in ghost form ; but, if it is, it keeps too high from earth to make 
its presence known or felt. Of all the accounts of hovering spirits and 
ghostly visitations that have come to my knowledge, none have seemed to 
corroborate the theory that a bad man's soul remains long in these parts. 
The true ghost is the shell of the immortal being who passes to God. It is 
an old saying that all ghosts are gentle and harmless ;. having none of the 



DESTINY. 509 



demoniac feeling about them. This shell, or chrysalis, has been often seen, 
but never as an enemy. Nor does it produce fright. It is not the immortal 
soul, but merely the filmy, floating form of the mind, and the outlined being 
of the person. Could I find the time in these pages I would gladly unfold 
much conclusive evidence of these strange facts ; but I promise to make all 
my pupils familiar with them in future publications which I shall donate to 
all who pursue these studies. All psychological investigators know that this 
shell-soul may go from and return to its live body. I know full well that a 
living being may appear in person at one place and appear in his intelligent 
shell, as a ghost, in another ; and the law which underlies this operation is 
simple to understand and to prove. All Societies of Psychical Research 
have obtained the most authentic evidence of this fact. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCV. 
Ghost Visits. — After death a good ghost may appear to another ; a 
bad one cannot, or does not. A magnetic person may hold, for a reasonable 
time, a certain influence over this ghost; just as the Leyden jar may retain 
the electrical force of a bad ghost. The exerting of this influence is not a 
function of spiritualism, but the opposite. Spiritualism is a species of tele- 
pathy ; and, as such, is easily proved to have no relation to a substantial 
sensation after death. The good ghost is the mind or shell of one wha 
recently died. It lingers to make known some fact and should be encouraged. 
Mankind has unlimited evidence of these attempts of the ghost to speak or be 
addressed ; and no person should run from them. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCVI. 
After Death. — The transition is instantaneous. The breath is not 
cool on the lips when the soul is in Heaven. It is happy. It is full of the 
joy of its new life. It knows no more of the earth, nor those who knew it 
here. The cutting off is as absolute as the impenetrable wall of utter for- 
getfulness. For this reason there can be no spirit-return. And there is a 
wide difference between the spirit and the ghost. The former is the real 
being, the latter its mental attribute. The mind, as I shall some day show 
by illustrations, is thrown off like a puff" of breath, or smoke, or essence- 
force, in the ordinary thinking of life. And, as one puff of smoke may be 



510 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY—TOME JEN. 

followed by another, so the thinker may throw off innumerable mental 
impressions in phosphorescent energy. This is the mind's vitality. It is 
the ghost of the person, whether alive or recently dead. Do not confound 
it with the spirit. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCVII. 
Spirits and Spiritualism. — Few persons are familiar with the real 
nature of the belief in spiritualism. There are many standpoints from 
which the subject may be studied, examined and discussed. From one we 
find certain evidences that seem to furnish proofs of the claim that there is 
a spirit land; and from another standpoint, the testimony is entirely lacking. 
There are many phenomena to be met, and many explanations with which to 
meet them. Magnetism, telepathy, hypnotism and delirium have all fur- 
nished some spiritualistic phenomena ; and all are capable of scientific 
explanation without reaching the "spirit realms," so called. We will 
examine the whole question at this place in a general way. In the first 
place ghosts are not spirits, but mental emanations, as likely to occur in life 
as in death. They are simple, natural and necessary. They occur and are 
experienced in the lives of all people every day ; but rarely ever excite the 
sense of vision. This is easily explained, for the mind appeals to the mind, 
not to the eye, and the sight of a mental impression is a species of abnormal 
vision. All people in all ages and in all countries have believed in ghosts; 
but not in spiritualism. Christ appeared to His disciples. The Holy Ghost 
is the mind of God. A spirit, if such exists, is quite a different being. 
Evidences of ghostly appearance cannot be used in support of spiritualism. 
The latter is a claim quite distinct. It alleges that the disembodied souls of 
friends may be called to earth ; and that communication may be had with 
men and women who died years, generations and even centuries ago. The 
spirits of the great dead have been forced to come to earth at the caprice of 
some ignorant and half-witted females who tampered with their immortal 
secrets as though they were pigmies in the hands of giants. This state of 
things pre-supposes that the spirit land is an incident of earth, instead of 
being above and beyond it. The mental-essence, called the ghost, does not 
linger long after death and soon is gone forever, never to be known or felt 
again. The soul, or the immortal part, is evolved from its chrysalis-tomb 



DESTINY. 611 

and ascends straight to Heaven. It never knows earth again, and is far 
beyond the summons of any inhabitant of this planet. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSOX DCCCCXCVIII. 

Types of the Hereafter. — The religions of earth have been so scanty 
in their description of the future state that all persons have felt free to 
create their own conceptions. None of us can know. It is better that we 
should not have direct knowledge. The first great question is, shall we 
know each other there ? And its answer furnishes but two alternatives : if 
we are not to know our dearest friends, the parting of loved ones on earth 
is the death of holiest ties; if we are to know in Heaven, then the pangs of 
separation from those whose sin has barred them from immortality must 
cause eternal suffering. My only means of arriving at conclusions are the 
facts that seem to bear upon the general cause of creation. If Satan was 
driven from Heaven, and if his forces are being kept away until such times 
as they may be disarmed, earth must ever be regarded as the battle ground 
from which the good will eventually escape and return to its original home. 
When the good is overwhelmed by Satan it leaves the body, and the Satanic 
part could not be desired in Heaven. I do not believe that any man or 
woman really so loves one who is lost to God, that any pang would be felt 
at the loss. There is a difference between the love of associations and of 
the personality in them. Few persons are able to analyze their loves except 
through deeds and environments. The heart rarely gets to the heart. This 
is proved by the ease with which a husband in prosperity, by his general 
good conduct, his kind ways, his individualities in this, that and the other 
act, throws a charm around the home life of his wife, until she almost lives 
in his being ; until a single mean act, despicable and treacherous, overturns 
her worship. Deeds and environments are generally mistaken for love and 
friendship. I am satisfied that a golden cord will hold real heart-loves 
together through all the vicissitudes of this life, and that no face will be 
missing in Heaven. Not a pang will be known. 

Yes, loved ones will meet and be recognized. Time being an anomaly 
in eternity, it must follow that the meeting will be instantaneous. As soon 
as we enter Heaven all our earthly friends whom love has bound together, 
will be presently with us. I do not think the soul is measured by the size 



512 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— TOME TEN. 



of the body. The babe is as the man. Nor do I think that there are 
gradations of mental power. The mind is merely a possibility in the 
physical life; it is a fact in Heaven, and, freed from its earthly limitations, 
is broad and expansive. Gradations of earth are due to variations of 
opportunity and environments. The mind here is relative; there it is 
absolute. Music is harmony of air vibrations ; air is Atomic combination ; 
and is necessary food to the physical body ; in Heaven no breezes blow ; no 
air is felt; no sound is heard by physical ears; but the mind, which inter- 
prets all the senses, will recognize the harmony of a new kind of music. 
So fragrance will be interpreted to the mind ; so colors will be known and 
seen by that inner spirit which is necessary even to earthly sight. 

I believe the body is Atomic in Heaven ; as Satan's certainly was, before 
he fell. In fact he stands as the type of perfection fallen. The grains of 
the material universe cannot be nothing; nor can the material be confined to 
the orbs of the sky to the exclusion of Heaven itself. If it were possible 
to find a man whose flesh is composed of good Atoms, he would be 
immortal; as disintegration would be impossible. Death is the elimination 
of God or Satan from the human body; the separation. A man when he 
becomes a superabundant devil kills himself under the law of disintegra- 
tion, which is his nature. Eternal unity is an attribute of life in Heaven. 
A new material body is woven from Atoms of perfection by the spirit that 
ascends from earth. It has functions of use, as they are instruments of the 
mind. 

It is not possible to know now what occupations we may have in 
Heaven. A few glimpses are caught from facts that may be at hand. As 
we shall neither eat nor drink, nor build up bodily tissues, all occupations 
that supply the necessaries of life here, will be superfluous there. I think 
the rule may be that whatever delights our better natures on earth will 
claim some of our attention hereafter. But there is nothing gained by 
mere speculation. 

For Essays on this subject, see "Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON DCCCCXCIX. 

Our Existences In approaching the close of this study, we 

naturally inquire, what new facts are brought to light as to our three 



DESTINY. 613 



existences ? We know that we are living now ; but have we lived before 
and shall we live again ? If oblivion closes out all memory of earth, we 
shall be as new creations in the life to come, and the question might then 
be asked, have we ever lived on earth? If in some past age, on some other 
planet, we trod the ways of a struggling existence which is now forgotten, 
it is equally possible that our destiny lies toward yet a third abode instead 
of Heaven. I do not think stich a belief rests on even the shadow of a 
foundation. All the sky is alike. All suns are the same. All orbs have 
the same origin and destiny. To be sure they are numerous and vast, and 
involve tremendous masses of matter; although the planets are hollow and 
the suns mere flame; but it must be remembered that the tiny animalcule 
regards the drop of water as too vast to be comprehended. It would 
not be inconsistent if our whole solar system were a mere speck in 
some great being's microscope. Size is of no importance. Matter every- 
where is the same; and human life may be expected wherever any orb 
has reached that temperature which permits a body to attain its exact 
amount of heat. Therefore, if we have lived before, we must have 
undergone just such a life as this. The conclusion is impossible for 
many reasons. 

Some people believe that the soul enters into the bodies of animals as 
a step in its future existence; or that it may have come out from some such 
origin. It could never graduate from the human to the animal, as every 
law of life is against it ; and the animal can only be a graduation toward 
the human in the flesh tissues that make the body of man. Our three 
existences may be summed up as follows: 

1. Our pre-earthly existence was in elemental form as materials only. 

2. Our earthly existence is the first appearance of our individuality. 

3. Our future existence begins immediately upon death. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 

LESSON M. 

Home. — K the devil was cast out of Heaven, it is not possible for 
him to return? His persistent enmity to God is so apparent that he must 
have recognized his fate and decided to make the worst of it. For this 
reason the devil nature of man, — and it is not in man but is man, — can 
never be admitted to Heaven. The evil Atoms that make up life must 

33 



514 SOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY— T03IE TEN. 

obey one of two destinies: either they are seeking to get back to Heaven 
by affiliating with God's own Atomic host whose course is Heavenward; 
or else they are seeking to destroy the better man by turning his course 
hell ward. In either case they are barred from Heaven, and will never 
ireturn. 

Satan, under some better name, was once the co-Ruler, but not the 
co-equal of God, The inspired Milton seemed to touch the practical facts of 
the war that caused the ruin of the old time associate of divinity. What- 
ever the cause, the results are known. The loss of a friend, a mate, a loved 
one, even though it occur through perfidy, is a serious blow ; and God 
could not look complacently out upon the long night that enwrapped the great 
distances of space, without the hope that other associates might be brought 
to Heaven to take the place of him that had fallen. So, with time as the 
harbinger of destiny, He decreed the great fiat of life; and, out of the dust 
of the universe, he permitted man to be created ; and conferred upon him 
the possibility of achieving immortality. If Paradise ever existed as a fact, 
it was in Heaven. If man ever fell, it was from Heaven ; and his name be- 
came Satan. Thus, the traditions of most religions may be harmonized. 
Men and women, saved from the wreck of life's conflict, will occupy, in the 
heart of God, the same fullness of association and affection that blessed this 
Satan before he fell. It is the story of the circle : the loss, the evolution, 
the return. 

When every sun shall have burned its fire away; when every planet 
shall have lost its heat and become a cold ice-world drifting idly through 
the realms of space ; when the hate that dwelt in every flame shall have been 
extinguished, and the last Atom shall have given up its life : the immortal 
man standing amid the splendor of Heaven's resounding courts, will look 
off across the long stretch of night that frames the universal horizon of the 
sky, and, catching glimpses now and then of some tiny dot scarce visible 
in space, will know that this was once his home, a shrunken spot that 
men once called the earth. 

For Essays on this subject, see " Rules for Essays," at the end of Tome Ten. 



Close of the Lessons. 



RULES FOR READING. 

Rule 1. Every Tome is a new standpoint from which some of the 
same subjects are viewed ; and the side of a fact seen from one point of view 
may be materially different from its opposite. 

Rule 2. No pupil is bound by any conclusion stated in any lesson of 
this Philosophy. While the author feels satisfied that the world will some 
day accept the facts herein stated, as absolute truths, he prefers that each 
pupil should dwell in the atmosphere of that freedom which gives the judg- 
ment its deepest strength. 

Rale 3. Any pupil who differs with the author as to the conclusions 
of any lesson, and who produces a philosophical essay upon the same topic, 
will be judged by the real merit of the essay. 

Rule 4-' Each pupil must read all the Tomes, and re-read all the 
lessons that bear upon a given fact, before refusing to accept that fact as 
truth. Every fact is many-sided. 



(5ir 



Closing Remarks 



OF THE 

AUTHOR 



A Word to My Pupils. — I have laid down many principles in this 
Philosophy. In the one thousand lessons there are several thousand prin- 
ciples, each pregnant with future fruitage. How came thej- to me, and how 
came I by them? If I mistake not, and I trust I may be permitted to say 
it freely, the many assertions are new to you and new to the world. I have 
made no positive assertion, unless I knew it to be both true and provable. 
Whatever may be the immediate verdict of mankind, I am sure that these 
principles will be ultimately accepted and unreservedly believed by all the 
intelligent world. 

As has been intimated a number of times heretofore, I was impressed 
in early youth with a desire to know more than seemed possible to be found 
out. In the fever of typhomania at the age of twelve, I was amazed at the 
magnifying power of my brain ; but have since learned that nearly all others 
have experienced the same mental phenomena in the same disease. Typho- 
mania is one phase of dangerous typhoid fever ; is often a fatal stage of it ; 
and is produced by an inflammatory excitement of the brain. It was form- 
erly supposed to be associated only with typhus fever. In its delirium the 
brain sometimes becomes a stronger magnifying power than the largest 
microscopes. 

The minute life then exhibited to me was, for a time, accepted as the 
wild fancy of the imagination ; and, had it not been for books that fell to 
my lot to read and study, I should have attributed the phenomena to nothing 
else. I soon believed that there was a cause for all unusual apparitions, 
all creatures or forms that came to the drunkards, the insane, and the delirious. 
I did not pursue my subsequent investigations for any love of glory, nor for 
hope of profit. I knew then as I know now that a man incurs two dangers 
when he steps into new realms of thought : first, his claims must be received 
with doubts, as all new ideas have been, time without end ; second, he must 
suffer heavy financial loss, which can never be recovered. 

(516) 



CLOSING BEBIARKS. 617 



My only motive in pursuing these studies was, and is to help others to 
see life as it exists. A quarter of a century ago I felt this to be my only 
motive, and no hour and no day since then has witnessed the slightest fluc- 
tuating from this single purpose. The time spent has become volumes ; 
the money expended would now count a fortune ; the efforts of brain, heart 
and body have impaired my health. 

Evidences of the Devil. 

I found in Atoms and in bacteria the most startling evidences of a good 
and a bad elemental life ; so clearly defined, that no doubt could any longer 
exist. I then concluded that man was a composite God-and-Devil : to 
prove this I laid my life and my reputation at the altar of challenge, and 
did what no living mortal has ever done ; but, before entering the field, I 
wrote down clearly in a book my purpose, and the far-reaching end I had in 
view. It was like making one's will before going into an unknown country, 
or down into a sulphurous mine. Nearly twenty-five years ago I wrote in 
my private diary these words : "J am young and unknown to the world. 
What I am about to do I shall carry through if it costs me all that man may 
call his own in life.'' 

My Sacrifices foe Proofs. 

Never since that day have I deviated a hair's breadth from that pur- 
pose. I believed that I could get into men's hearts, into their very souls, it 
might be, and know them as they are. It was my purpose to get behind the 
mask. The structure which I now give to the world as this Philosophy is 
built upon foundations laid a quarter of a century ago ; but its walls have 
been growing during all the intervening years. In addition to hundreds of 
specific experiments referred to from time to time, I have in a general way 
gone to extraordinary lengths and breadths and depths. The outlines I 
herewith state : — 

1. I have made myself familiar with the character and the motives of 
the farmers, producers, laborers and toilers of the North, South, East and 
West. 

2. I have been in the midst of and studied the natures of foreign 
Caucasians, and representatives of all the anti-racials of earth, and especially 
the negroes, Mongolians and Indians. 



618 HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 

3. There is no slum-life, no tramp-life, and no anarchistic phase of 
moral or immoral life that I have not watched and analyzed, close to but not 
among its operations. (I have never laid aside my self-respect.) 

4. In one way or another I have had access to the highest planes of 
society. I have personally known many of the most eminent men and 
women. To some of the leading thinkers in the past I have unfolded my 
thoughts ; and have often been told, " The world is not ready for this." 

5. I have been within the households and the inner lives of clergymen ; 
and there is no theological seminary in America with whose workings and 
methods I am not familiar. As far as one man can, I have compassed the 
motives of Protestants and Catholics, through a remarkably large acquaint- 
ance among individuals; and I count, as personal and intimate friends, more 
than one thousand clergymen in this country. 

6. I have studied from books, and with professors, professional men, 
and laymen, the deepest problems of physiology, anatomy, histology and 
bacteriology. 

7. In the legal profession I have watched hundreds of jury cases, met 
thousands of witnesses, and got down deep into the lives of many representa- 
tive lawyers. 

8. In the so-called profession of journalism I have been an eye-witness 
to the deeds that make up the lives of men in every division of the business ; 
have seen lives blotted out in sin and shame and crime ; and know the down^ 
ward grade they travel. 

9. No man who lives to-day has studied so carefully the character of 
criminals out of jail. I have a record of nearly five thousand criminal acts. 
During many years I followed out certain classes of facts in human nature 
and found a fixed law controlling the operations of crime. My investiga- 
tions were most thorough. The words of one of America's greatest men 
always rang in my ears : " Never take anything for granted." Nor did I 
believe that a hundred instances could make a fixed law. I now know that 
every human being is under the sway of two criminal tendencies; and that 
the devil-part of every person may be tempted. To have inferred it from 
merely scores of cases would have been dishonest ; to know it enables me 
to do a lasting service to mankind, by holding a lighted lantern over the 
dangerous paths of life. 



CLOSING REMARKS. 519 



10. Like one who obeyed a higher command and bent beneath the 
consequences, I have left no phase of life untouched. With record book 
after record book full to the brim with facts and dates and places and names, 
I stand equipped with proofs mountain high of the transactions from which 
I draw the conclusions of this Philosophy. It has been my life work. I 
have not spoken from hearsay or secondary evidence. I have had the aid of 
the ablest coadjutants whom I could command ; yet there is no phase of 
human life which I have not investigated in person. 

11. My proofs then are two-fold: first, those to which I refer in many 
ways throughout the lessons of this Philosophy; second, my personal acquaint- 
ance with every phase and shade of human life. I state this emphatically to show 
how deeply I felt the duty laid upon me to pursue a course of study that 
had been stimulated to excess in youth and that was manifestly designed to 
help mankind. In obeying this duty I have made the sacrifices mentioned ; 
and in return, if return is the proper word, I ask my pupils to study 
the lessons in the same spirit in which they are written, — hoping that they 
may shed some light upon the darker problems of life, and lead one and all 
into the paths of rectitude. 

EDMUND SHAFTESBURY. 



Graduation in Philosophy. 

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 

1. A large proportion of those who own this book do not intend even 
to try for the Diploma. This is due to the fact (as many have previously 
expressed it in their early applications) that they desire to study at home, 
free from fixed rules, and under the stimulus only of such a course of train- 
ing. To all who propose to pursue such lessons by themselves, this Phil- 
osophy will prove an ample stimulus. 

2. Others intend to win Certificates of Merit. This is a somewhat 
broader plan than the first. Before doing this, it is well to read carefully 
all the Rules that bear upon the steps to be taken. 

3. The third plan will be the winning of Certificates of Honor. This, 
too, is governed by Rules. 

4. When a certain number of Honors have been won, the Diploma of 
Graduation will be issued, and the graduate will be expected to use the let- 
ters Ph. G. as a part of his address. 

5. All graduates, or a selected number, are made a Board of Confer- 
ence with reference to the conferring of the title of Doctor of Philosophy. 
This step will be taken only when the graduate who seeks it will command 
the respect of the educational world by reason of his attainments. 

6. The five hundred problems of Tome One cover the entire scope of 
the work. 

7. The Major Problems of Tome Two are intended to draw out the 
philosophic nature of the pupil. The suggestions, hints and arguments of 
that Tome are, as therein stated, offered only to set the mind of the pupil 
to thinking. They are thrusts of challenge, and should not be considered as 
statement of principles or laws. 

8. The Mysteries of Tome Three are doubts placed before the pupil to 
force his mind into a subjective condition. 

9. The statements spread before the pupil in the lessons of all the 
Tomes subsequent to Tome Three, are absolute laws and principles; and the 
facts therein stated are true and known to be true. 

(520) 



GRADUATION IN PHILOSOPHY. 521 

10. Where conclusions are drawn from facts of general knowledge, 
the pupil need not accept such conclusions. His mind should be free to 
draw such inferences as the facts seem to warrant. 

11. Where I have stated opinions merely, or offered theories, the pupil 
may reject or amend them. The whole system is without bondage. No 
pupil need feel fettered by any chains in this Philosophy. 

RULES FOR ESSAYS AND GRADUATION. 

Rule 1. All examinations shall be by correspondence, unless we deem 
it important to appoint a special examiner in the pupil's locality. 

Rule 2. The author, if he can conveniently do so, will personally 
inspect such essays and answers as are written legibly, and will pass upon 
the question of their philosophic value. 

Rule 3. Any pupil who shall win Ten Honors shall be regarded as a 
Graduate in Philosophy, shall receive a diploma upon paying the fee there- 
for, and may use the letters Ph. G. as an emblem of such graduation. 

Rule If.. Any pupil who may answer the problems of Tome One, or 
those of Tome Two, according to the provisions stated in said Tomes respect- 
ively, will be regarded as having won nine Honors. A collection of Leading 
Q,uotations shall count as the tenth Honor. The quotations must be crisp 
thoughts taken from this Philosophy. 

Rule 5. Any pupil who wins Five Merits, shall be considered as hav- 
ing won an Honor. A Merit is conferred on any registered student of this 
Philosophy who sends the following : 

(a) One Large Essay from Tome Three. 

( 6 ) One Essay from each of the subsequent Tomes ; namely, Four, 
Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten. 

A Merit, therefore, is founded upon one Large Essay and seven Small 
Essays. 

Rule 6. A Large Essay must follow the suggestions at the end of 
Tome Three; and should contain not less than 400 words. 

Rule 7. A Small Essay must be founded upon some one lesson in the 
last seven Tomes. It must unfold or develop at least ten distinct ideas, not 
found in, but suggested by, a single lesson ; shall contain one hundred words 
or more ; and be written in a scholarly and philosophical manner. 



522 E03IE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Rule 8. Not more than one Merit shall be sought in the same week ; 
and due care shall be observed in pursuing the study. Haste will lead to 
failure and discontent. 

Rule 9. Any pupil who seeks graduation merely as a public honor, or 
a degree or title before it is respectably earned, will be discredited in all 
examinations. li must be undeistood that the chief aim of the pupil shall be 
to acquire knowledge and to become scholarly and educated. 

Rule 10. When, by sending us eight scholarly essays under Rule 5, 
a registered student has won a Merit, a Certificate to that effect will be due 
him ; and when five Certificates of Merit are won, a Certificate of Honor 
will be due. 

Rule 11. Each Certificate of Honor should be kept, as ten of them 
will entitle the pupil to Graduation and a Diploma. There are no charges 
for correspondence or Certificates when the pupil encloses a number six 
envelope, folded once in the middle, and duly stamped and directed. 
Diplomas cost, as previously stated, five dollars. 

PARTING WORDS. 

It will be found that each one of the one thousand lessons is full of 
possibilities for much thought and study. To the professional man it will 
prove a stimulus to deeper and more interesting thinking. The clergyman 
will find food for several thousand sermons, and the lecturer and statesman 
hundreds of subjects of intense public interest, such as the thinking masses 
most care to hear about. The times are ripe for a new system of popular 
lectures ; for a new code of statesmanship ; for the displacement of theology 
by religious sermons in touch with humanity ; and for class teaching in the 
secular knowledge of Philosophy. 

Who of our Philosophy- Graduates will enter the lecture field for the 
good of the world, and seek to lay before the great public the truths of life? 

Who will undertake the social reforms now necessary to the welfare of . 
our national homes; and, in so doing, enter the field of statesmanship? 

Who, from his pulpit, will thunder forth the mighty facts which are 
stepping stones to immortality? 

Who will organize classes in the "Shaftesbury School of Philosophy" 
and instruct the public in those matters which are most educational and 
most valuable? 



GRA D UA TION IN PHILOSOPHY. 623 



From the lamentable failures of the leading lives of this and the past 
generations, it is apparent that a new theme must lead to glory and earthly 
fame. The successful professional men and women of the immediate future 
must belong to one of four classes: 

1. The Public Lecturer in Philosophy. 

2. The Statesman, who is not a politician. 

3. The Minister of Humanity. 

4. The Class Teacher in Philosophy. 

So deep is the yearning for more light, that a steady number of pupils 
could be found in most any community who would gladly enroll term after 
term in private classes to receive instruction in Philosophy. A session once 
a week would meet with success in the Graduate's locality ; and travelling 
teachers or lecturers could easily arrange to give a certain number of lessons 
in other places, within a fixed compass of time. 

You are free to loan this book to others, and to teach from it. In 
fact, the time will come when you will see clearly that it is your duty to 
teach its truths. As a Graduate, when you become such, we shall stand 
ready to aid you, in whatever way we may, to achieve such results in life as 
a laudable ambition may dictate. Your path to greatness may lie in this 
direction. 

The present volume is larger than was at first intended. Yet the facts 
contained in each lesson have been reduced again and again in order that 
they may stand out in clear relief, and possess greater value on account 
of their brevity. 

Owing to temperament and opportunity the author intends to continue 
his investigations into these deepest problems, and to present each of his 
pupils with a series of his forthcoming works. 

In all correspondence containing answers, essays, or inquiries, address, 

L. E. MAKTYN, 

Secretary, 
P. O. B..X 2U1. Washington, D. C. 



INDEX. 



The figures refer to the Lessons, unless otherwise stated. 

The first fifty Lessons relate to The Five Hundred Problems, and the next fifty 
Lessons relate to The Major Problems. 

All the Lessons from one hundred to one thousand contain the facts which make ui> 
the whole story of OuR Existences. 

A Animals, do they have souls? - 91 

Animals, killing of intelligent, - 16 

Animals, origin of, . - - 287 
Annihilation, - - - - 42, 99 

Apparitions, ----- 867 

Apparitions to a fevered brain, - 44 

Appearances of good, ... 913 

Appetite, chemical action of, - - 38 

Appetite, morbid, - - - - 435 

Array of suicides, - - - - 981 

Arrows, poison of, - - - - 248 

Articles of Schmalcald, - - - 767 

Assailants of character, - - - 478 

Assault, ------ 897 

Associated misfortunes, - - - 310 

Association, causes of, - - - 17 

Astuteness, ----- 745 

Atom, the chemical, - - - 7 

Atomic chaos, - - r - 156 

Atoms and their destiny, - - 923 

Atoms and the lessons they teach, - 134 

Atoms, making a diagram of, - 144 
Atoms, three laws of, - - 43, 59 

Atoms without purpose, - - 339 

Attachments, 748 

Attack on life, . - - - 244 

Attainments of the soul, - - 100 

At the death, 930 

Attraction, capillary, - . - 165 

Attributes of the atom, - - - 145 

Aurora borealis, - - - - 26 
Authors of the Bible, - - 773, 774 

Averages, ----- 709 

Avocations, ----- 953 



Abnormal perception, 
Absence of gravity, result of. 
Abstract knowledge, 

Action, 

Activities, mysterious, - 
Activity, - - - . 

Acumen, . - . . 

Adam and Eve, 
Advisers, - - - . 
Affection, - - - . 
Affinity of molecules, 
Affirmative darkness, 
Affluence, honest, - 
After death, - - - ■ 
After death, what? 
After the grave. 
Age, - - - - - 
Age, cause of it, - 
Age, how it comes on, - 
Age of the human race, 
Age, old, - - - . 
Agent of the soul, - 
Ages, waste of, - - ■ 
Alcohol-devs, 
Alcohol legislation. 
Alcoholic intelligence, - 
All life comes from the Atom, 
Allurements to death, 
Alms giving, - - - 
American experiments, - 
Amoeba life, - - - 
Amputation, - - - ■ 
Anarchy, causes of. 
Anchor, the ten of the, - 
Angels, good and bad, - 
Angs, value of, - - 
Animal and vegetable intelli 
Animal emotions, - 
Animal food, - 
Animalism, - 
Animal life, - 
Animal life for food. 
Animal life, mysteiy of. 
Animal superiority, 
Animals and thought, 



- 857 

- 168 

- 597 

- 808 

- 222 
620, 792 

- 618 

- 321 

- 972 

- 99 

- 163 

- 95 

- 391 

- 643 

- 996 

- 646 
625, 626 

- 31 
85, 901 

- 410 

- 687 

- 601 

- 408 

- 268 

- 461 

- 278 

- 159 

- 631 

- 701 



208 
510 
581 
885 

22 
220 
395 
750 

72 
521 

28 

17 
109 

40 
524 



gence. 



B 

Bacteria and insects, - - - 262 

Bacteria in general, - - - 201 

Bacterial cities, - - - - 379 

Bacterial creatures, . - . 2O6 

Barbarism, 572 

Barbarism, fixed, - - - - 552 

Barrier of right, - - - - 695 

Battle, the great, - - - - 920 

Battles in the sun, - - - - 335 



(525) 



526 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Beast, what is a, - - - - 1 

Beasts, evolution of, - - - ^88 

Beasts of prey, . - - - 286 

Beasts, mental powers of, - - 10 

Beginning of consciousness, - - 737 

Beginnings of history, - - - 315 

Belief, religious, . - - - 124 

Bells, ------ 936 

Bestial food, ----- 375 

Beyond the sun, . - - - 336 

Bible, the, - - - - - 761 

Bible, how written, . - - 773 

Biblical account of creation, - - 349 

Birth, act constituting, - - - 2 

Birth of the body, - - - - 503 

Birth of the soul, - - - - 494 

Black, what is it? - - - " ,29 

Bleeding host, the, - - - - 745 

Blind force, evil not a, - - - 393 
Blindness, developed by darkness, 11, 67 

Blood, chemistry of, - - - 98 

Blood poisoning, - - - - 259 

Blue milk, ----- 265 

Bodies or souls ? - - - - 499 

Bodily harm, - - - - 14 

Body, chemical influence over mind, 9 

Body, destiny of, - - - - 907 

Body, phosphoric parts of, - - 26 

Body, separation of soul from, - 86 

Book of Mormon, - - - - 759 

Borderland of civilization, - - 443 

Born idiots, ----- 498 

Brahminism, ----- 812 

Brain and flesh, - - - - 514 

Brain divisions, . - - - 731 

Brain images, - - - - 276 

Brain-light, ----- 529 

Brain, nature of, - - - - 507 

Brain reality, - - - - 853 

Brain sections, . - - - 887 

Brain tissues, - - - - 873 

Breath and vitality, - - - 47 

Brewing, ----- 270 

Bribing of legislation, - - - 713 

Bright's disease and alcohol, - - 718 

Broken ties, 751 

Brute origin, 295 

Burden of years, - - - - 729 

Buried existence, - - - - 661 

Business, ----- 976 



Cancers, ----- 256 

Capillary attraction, - - - 165 

Capital punishment, - - - 432 

Cat, the glow of the eyes of, - - 139 

Catching thoughts, - - - 859 



Catechisms of Luther, - - - 767 

Caucasian missions, - _ - 772 

Caucasian supremacy, - - - 551 

Caucasian unity, - - - - 580 

Cause of age, . _ - - 626 

Cause of dreams, - - - - 636 

Cause of life, - _ - - 411 
Cause of sleep, - - - . 638 
Cell -aggregate and heredity, - - 136 
Cell-nucleus contains the vital prin- 
ciple, ----- 131 

Cell produced by the nucleus, - 133 

Cell, the primary life, - - - 125 

Cells as parents, - - - - 210 

Centrality of the soul, - - - 824 

Centre of life, - - - - 843 

Centrifugal force, - - - - 62 

Centripetal force, - - - - 62 

Cerebellum, the, - - - - 520 

Cerebrum, the, . - - - 522 

Chalcedon, creed of, - - - 767 

Chance, doctrine of, - - 22, 77 

Change of opinion, - - - 453 

Changes of skin-color, - - - 544 

Channels of the past, . - - 424 

Chaos, ------ 156 

Character, - - - - 38, 89 

Character and morality, - - 605 

Characteristics of the races, - - 549 

Charity, - - - _ - - 74 

Charity in home communities, - 772 

Charity, when false, . - - 697 

Chart of human life, - • - - 885 

Chart of religion, - - - 784, 785 

Chart, the great, - - - - 886 

Cheese, ------ 265 

Chemistry and life, - - - 159 

Chemistrv, mystery of, - - - 114 

Child-cell, the, - - - - 485 

Child, foetus of, - - - - 492 

Child-germ, the, - - - - 125 

Child-idiocv, - - - - - 506 

Child-mind, ----- 504 

Child, period of quickening, - - 493 

Child secluded, mental condition of, 10 

Children born of criminals, - - 586 

Choice of avocations, - - - 975 

Cholera-germs, - - - 227, 231 

Church dissensions, - _ - 774 

Churchgoinsc, - - - - 786 

Church, the7 - - - - - 723 

Cities, effect of laree. - - - 674 

Cities, fate of, - - - - 380 

Cities, history of, - - - - 381 

Cities, slum life of, - - 378, 379 

Citizenship, ----- 717 

Circumstances, how controlled, - 77 

Circumstances, man's control of, - 22 



INDEX. 



527 



Civilization, - - - - - 12 

Civilization, advancing cause of, - 17 

Civilization and divorce, - - 583 

Civilization and the Bible, - - 787 

Civilization, scale of, - - - 420 

Civilized tortures, - - - - 419 

Classes of people, . - - - 73 

Classes of society, - - - - 704 

Cleanliness, ----- 790 

Clearance, ----- 610 

Clergymen, duties of, - - - 809 

Club-rooms, 726 

Code of religion, - - - 784, 78") 

Coffin, the ten of the, - - - 885 

Cohesion explained, - - - 164 

Cohesion, mystery of, - - - 117 

Cold, - - ' - - - - 176 

Colonies of life-cells, - - - 491 

Color and action, - - - - 539 
Color and light, - - - 29, 83 

Color of the skin, - - - - 541 

Color, mystery of, - - - - 121 

Colors, elementary, - - - 29 

Colors, office of, - - - - 29 

Colors of the mind. - - _ §56 

Colleges, ----- 591 
Combustion, spontaneous, - 28, 82 

Commercial corporations, - - 711 

Common interests, - . . 676 

Common law grossness, - - 971 

Commonwealth of universal life, - 817 

Compacts, ----- 977 

Complex molecules, - - - 162 

Complexion and cause, - - - 542 

Compulsory education, - - - 581 

Conception, ----- 488 

Conception, chemical process of, - 2 

Concrete knowledge, - - - 598 

Condition of the earth, - - - 175 

Confessions, ----- 451 

Conflict of Devs and Angs, - - 219 

Conflict of intellects, - - - 413 
Conflict of ])owers, - - 198, 805 

Conquest of nations, - - - 72 

Conscience, ----- 332 

Conscience, guilty, - - - ggj 

Consciousness, - - - - 9. 64 

Consciousness and soul-life, - - 496 

Consciousness, degree in vegetation, 10 

Consequences, - . . . 609 

Consumption, - . . . 240 

Contagions, - - - - - 204 

Contemplation of death, - - 640 

Content, describe perfect, - - 30 

Contentment, its eflTect on health, - 31 

Contentment, its process on health, 31 

Continuity, ----- 947 

Contortions of sight, - - - 277 



Contract of marriage, - - - 533 

Contraction, law of, - - - 8 

Cordiality and sincerity, - - 728 

Corporations, - - - 17, 710 

Corporation tax, - - - - 714 

Council of Trent, - - - - 767 

Courts, - 694 

Cowards, ----- 697 

Cranks, - 70 

Creation, and its proof, - - - 308 

Creation, Bible account of, - - 12 

Creation, dual, - - - - 333 

Creation in general, - - _ 124 

Creation of a double nature, - - 917 

Creation, order of, - - - 4, 291 

Creation, plan of, - - - - 155 

Creation, purpose of, - - - 299 

Creation, science and the Bible, - 54 

Creation, theories of, - . - 156 

Creeds, 766, 767 

Creeds of all theologies, - - 767 

Crime among savages, - - - 71 

Crime an impulse, - . . 36O 

Crime, grades of, - - . - 335 

Crime, how transmitted, - - 377 

Crime in general, . - - . 195 

Crime in towns, - - . . 333 
Crime, is it a disease? - - 15, 70 

Crime- mania, - - - - 361 

Crime, moral ancestors precede, - 3 

Crime, prevention of, - - - 429 

Crime, self-knowledge of, - - 384 

Crimes of a nation, . . - 353 

Crimes of nature, - - - - 297 

Crimes, seven years' variation of, - 70 

Criminal disposition inherited, - 3 

Criminal periods, alternate, - - 15 

Criminal tendencies handed down, 3 

Criminality, headstrong, - - 15 

Criminals, extensive parentage of, 3 
Criminals, prevention of parentage 

of, ------ 37 

Cross, the ten of the, - - . 335 

Crowded life, - - - - 656 

Crucifixion, the, - - . - 615 

Cruelties of nature, how avoided, - 7 

Cruelty, ----- 281 

Cruelty of women, - - - 355 

Cruelty, philosophy of, - - - 296 

Cultivated sensitiveness, - - 879 

Cultivation of land, - - - 665 

Cultivation of Pul-glow, - - 141 

Culture, ----- 39 

Cunning, ----- 2I8 

Cunning in crime, - . - 372 

Cure of crime, - - - . 536 

Curiosity, - - - - - 472 

Curses, ------ 979 



528 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Daily journalism, - - - - 442 

Dangers from the soil, - - - 688. 

Dangers, natural, - - - - 284 

Dangers of business, . - - 713 

Dangers of disease, . - - 217 

Dangers of phosphorus, - - - 527 

Dangers to life, 100 most serious, - 13 

Dante's soul-life, - - - - 3 

Dark religion, the, - - - - 771 

Darwinian theory, - - - - 68 

Dawn of civilization, - - - 410 

Day, how to spend the, - - - 659 

Day, the last, - - - - 641 

Deadly serpents, - - - - 69 

Death, ------ 31 

Death, after, ----- 643 

Death and electricity, - - 929, 930 

Death and unconsciousness, - - 633 

Death, is it necessary ? - - - 85 

Death, is it necessary? - - - 902 

Death, necessity of, . . . 31 

Death of animals, - - - - 829 

Death of peace, - - - - 992 

Death of Satan, - - - - 340 

Death of the majority, - - - 940 

Death, phenomena of, - - - 933 

Death, philosophy of, - ' - - 649 

Death, purpose of, - - - - 32 

Death, sensations of, - - - 986 

Death, solace in, - - - - 909 

Deathless enersry, - - - - 294 

Decay, ------ 182 

Decency and business, - - - 727 

Deductions, ----- 639 

Defense, domestic animals chief, - 13 

Defiance of decency, - . - 459 

Defiance of fatality, . - - 903 

Defiance of law, - - - - 462 

Degradation, ----- 700 

Degrees of humanity, - - - 569 

Delusion, ----- 745 

Denominations, - - - - 768 

Dependence, - - - - 742, 835 

Depravity, ----- 90 

Depths of human nature, - - 567 

Desire for marriage, - - - 574 

Destination of Satan, - - - 918 

Destiny in evil, - - - - 980 

Destiny in life, - - - - 946 

Destiny of matter, - - - 922 

Destiny of racial difference, - - 845 

Destiny of the labor problem, - 956 

Destiny of the mind, - - - 880 

Detection, fear of, - - - - 740 

Deterrence through fear, - - 363 

Dev-atoms, 185 

Devil, is there a personal ? - - 100 



Devil-nature, 
Devil, shape of, - 
Dev poison, - - - - 
Devs and Angs, 
Differentiation, 
Difiiculties of theology, 
Diffusion of the races, - 
Digestion, - - - . 
Digestion of life's incidents, ■ 
Digestion, separative action. 
Digestive action, in plant and 
Diphtheria, - - - ■ 
Disbelief, - - - . 
Discord, - - - . 

Discreditable race, a, 
Discussions of theology. 
Disease and water, 
Disease-germs and bacteria, 
Disease, mystery of, 
Disease of the muscles, - 
Disguises of evil, - 
Dishonest business. 
Dishonest professions, 
Dishonesty, - - - 
Dishonesty, cause of. 
Dishonesty, slight, 
Disintegration, 
Disintegration, law of, - 
Disposition, human, 
Distant influences. 
Distant thoughts, - 
Distillation, - - - 
Distillation, spores in, - 
Diverse man, - - - 
Diversity and evolution. 
Diversity, doctrine of. 
Diversity vs. Darwinism, 
Divisibility, limit to, 
Divorce, - - - 
Divorce, logic of, - 
Double creation. 
Double law of telepathy, 
Double man, - - - 
Double senses. 
Drainage, - - - 
Dreams, operation of. 
Drifts of life, 
Drinker, the alcohol, 
Drinking-room, 
Drinking water. 
Drunkenness and habits. 
Dual creators, 
Dual intelligence, - 
Duration of hell, - 
Duration of morality, 
Duties of the citizen. 
Duties toward the church. 
Duty, - - - - 



784, 785 

- 828 

- 228 

- 201 

- 490 

- 812 

- 846 

- 519 

- 979 

- 66 
in, 11 

- 249 

- 770 

- 803 

- 322 

- 765 

- 682 

- 182 

- 123 

- 533 

- 386 

- 978 

- 970 

- 20 

- 21 

- 390 

- 908 

- 919 

- 194 

- 865 

- 878 

- 683 

- 275 

- 738 
214, 293 

- 100 

- 405 

- 138 

- 37 

- 583 
300, 917 
871, 872 

- 307 

- 575 

- 678 

- 636 

- 476 

- 387 

- 796 

- 680 

- 725 

- 333 

- 337 

- 942 

- 358 

- 717 

- 723 

- 199 



INDEX. 



529 



E 




Envy, origin of. 




20 






Ephemeral, the, 


- 


811 


Ear of man, - - - - 


- 12 


Epithets, 


- 


661 


Earth, how long existing. 


3 


Equalities, . - - 


- 


709 


Earth, interior of, - 


- 175 


Equality, 


- 


21 


Earth, man's dwelling-place, - 


- 63 


Errors in belief. 


- 


313 


Earth, mystery of the, - 


- 115 


Erysipelas, - . . 


- 


259 


Earth, newness of, - 


- 409 


Essays, large. 


- 


124 


Earth, rotundity of, 


8 


Essence of soul life. 


- 


96 


Earth's heaven, 


- 983 


Estates, - - - - 


- 


654 


Earth's hell, - - - - 


- 984 


Eunuchs, . - - 


- 


36 


Easy origin, - - - - 


- 759 


Eunuchs and crime. 


- 


586 


Education, - - . - 


- 90 


Events and superstitions. 


- 


613 


Education and conscience, 


- 5i;5 


Ever present evil, - 


- 


306 


Education and crime. 


- 695 


Ever present, the, - 


- 


57 


Education and intelligence, - 


- 476 


Evidences of good, - 


- 


730 


Education, com]iulsory, - 


- 681 


Evidences of man's origin. 


- 


407 


Education, university, - 


- 696 


Evidences of war in space. 


- 


326 


Effective example, - - - 


- 422 


Evil against evil, - 


- 


428 


Effect of im|)ressions, 


- 734 


Evil, extent of. 


- 


342 


Effect of punishment. 


- 362 


Evil, how brought to earth, 


- 


154 


Egg, the human, - 


128, 486 


Evil in evolution, - 


- 


289 


Eighth principle, - 


- 793 


Evil, is it unborn? - 


- 


412 


Electricity, - - - - 


24, 46, 79 


Evil life after death. 


- 


931 


Electricity and death, - 


- 929 


Evil One, the. 


- 330 


, 331 


Electricity, difference between 


fire 


Evil, philosophy of. 


- 279 


, 280 


and, ----- 


- 25 


Evil, preponderance of, - 


- 


302 


Electricity, generation of. 


- 24 


Evil, relation of to good. 


- 


303 


Electricity, immediate essence r 


.fall 


Evil, supremacy of. 


- 


348 


life,_ - _ - -_ _ - 


- 27 


Evils of large combinations. 


- 


711 


Electricity, its condition when 


dor- 25 


Evolution and diversity, 


- 


214 


inant, ----- 


- 25 


Evolution, does cell-life teac 


h it? - 


213 


Electricity, kinds of. 


- 938 


Evolution in species, 


- 


646 


Electricity, little known of, - 


27,46 


Evolution of beasts. 


- 


288 


Electricity, mystery, 


- 120 


Evolution of mental force. 


- 


905 


Element, chemical, 


7 


Evolution of mind. 


- 


612 


Elements of chemistry, - 


- 60 


Exactitude of laws. 


- 


694 


Elements, mercilessness of, 


- 38 


Exact justice. 


- 


430 


Elements, the four vital. 


- 129 


Examination, end of first. 


- 


60 


Eleventh principle, 


- 798 


Examination, the second. 


- 


50 


Elohim, ----- 


- 333 


Existence, a buried. 


- 


661 


Emanations, - - - - 


- 932 


Existence, new, 


- 


663 


Emerging from entanglements, 


- 808 


Existence, previous, as 


human 




Emotions of death, 


- 900 


being, ... 


- 


3 


Emotions of the heart, - 


- 892 


Existence, previous, as some 


foi-m of 




Emotions of the soul, 


- 890 


life, - - : - 


- 


2 


Emotions, schooling the, 


- 889 


Existences, our. 


- 


999 


Emotions, seat of, - 


- 734 


Expansion, mystery of, - 


- 


118 


Emotions unguarded. 


- 896 


Experiment of honesty, - 


- 


663 


End of the universe. 


- 925 


Explanations of death, - 


- 


934 


End. the, - - - - 


- 648 


Explosion, - - - 


- 


174 


Enemies of man, - - - 


- 233 


Extent of evil. 


- 


342 


Enemy of nature, - - - 


- 261 


Extermination, 


- 


679 


Entanglements, 


- 807 


Extinction of man. 


- 


298 


Enterprises, - - - - 


- 711 


Extinction of the anti-racia' 


Is, 


687 


Envy, ----- 


19, 75 


Extremes of morality, - 


- 


356 


Envy among animals. 


- 20 


Eyes and darkness. 


- 


629 


Envy, excessive, - - - 


- 357 


Eyes, how originated. 


- 


12 



630 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Factions, . . . - - 

Facts investigated, . . - 

Facts, three universal, - - - 

Failure of humanity, - . - 
Faith and man, 

Fallacy of taxation, . . - 

Fallen man, - - - - - 

False charity, ... - 

Falsehoods, - - - - - 

False, the, ----- 

Family record, - - - - 

Fatal progress, - - - - 

Fate and man, - - . - 

Fate of cities, - _ - - 

Fate of our bodies, - - - - 

Fate, process of, - 

Father of devs, - - - - 

Fear among negroes, . - - 

Fear in religion, - - - - 

Fermentation, science of, 
Fermentation, spores in, 

Ferment-devs, . - . - 
Fiendishness of women, - 

Fifteenth principle, - - . 

Fifth conclusion, - - - - 

Fifth principle, - - - - 

Filth, ------ 

Filth in disease, - - - - 

Filthy persons, - - - - 

Financial panics, - - - - 

Fire, - 

Fire, analysis of, - 

Fire, its difference from heat and 

light,_-_ - - - - - 

Fire, origin of, - - - - 
Fire, what is it? - 

First conclusion, - - - - 
First glimpses of bacteria. 

First knowledge, - - - - 
First knowledge of God, 
First man, ----- 

First molecules, . - - - 

First principle, - . - - 
First sensation of death, 
First sin, ----- 

First war, the, - _ _ _ 
Five points, ----- 
Fixed character of barbarism. 

Fixed types of races, - - . 

Flesh as food, - . - - 

Flesh-devs, - - - - - 
Flesh, intelligence of, - 
Flies, torment of, - 

Floating population, . - - 

Flower-growth, - - _ . 



Flowers, - - - - . 

Flowers, designed for man's happi- 



795 



324 


ness, ----- 


- 30 


304 


Flowers, growth of, 


29,84 


341 


Flowers, relative beauty of, - 


- 30 


320 


Fcetus, desti-uction of, willful mur- 


749 


der, 


2 


708 


Foetus, the, - - - . 


- 492 


322 


Fomenthig quarrels, 


- 969 


697 


Food and color, 


- 645 


423 


Food and mind, - - . 


- 530 


667 


Food, influences of. 


- 189 


685 


Food of man, . - - 


- 178 


243 


Food, phosphatic, necessary 


to 


926 


brain, . - - - 


9 


380 


Food producers, 


- 703 


908 


Foods, comparison of, 


- 181 


924 


Food, supply of limited. 


- 221 


301 


Food, the cause of crime. 


- 375 


555 


Forbidden fruit, the. 


- 295 


312 


Force of mental life. 


- 840 


269 


Force of physical life, - 


- 839 


275 


Forces beyond the sun, - 


- 336 


266 


Forgetting, - - - - 


- 50 


369 


Fortunes, - - - - 


- 709 


802 


Founders of the Ideal City, - 


- 652 


809 


Fourteenth principle. 


- 801 


790 


Fourth conclusion. 


- 808 


800 


Fourth principle, - - - 


- 789 


237 


Fragrance, - . - - 


- 29 


696 


Fragrance, mystery of, - 


- 122 


463 


Free agency of man. 


- 780 


28 


Freedom without sin. 


- 21 


152 


Free moral agents, - 


- 76 




Friday, ----- 


612, 614 


28 


Frontiers of space. 


- 850 


5 


Fruits and health. 


- 686 


82 


Fruits and vegetables, - 


- 671 


805 


Fullness of life, - - - 


- 815 


202 


Functions of organisms, - 


- 127 


505 


Functions, will any two prod 


uce 


993 


life? ----- 


- 127 


314 


Funeral, the, - - - 


- 644 


161 


Future dwelling-place of man. 


- 63 


786 






987 


G 




739 






344 


Gallows, the ten of the, - 


- 885 


849 


Gambling, - - - - 


- 799 


553 


Gambling, - - - - 


- 463 


548 


Ganglia, - . _ - 


- 515 


72 


Ganglia, - - - - 


- 874 


186 


Gas, 


- 171 


396 


General breaking up, 


- 628 


13 


General destiny of the body, - 


- 907 


715 


General mysteries, - - - 


- 101 


536 


Genuineness, - - - - 


- 755 



INDEX. 



631 



Germ of the child, 


- 


125 


Ghosts, ----- 


- 


881 


Ghosts, appearance of, - 


- 


44 


Ghosts of death, 


994, 


995 


Gigantic combinations, - 


- 


460 


Glame, 


26,47 


Glame, 


830, 


831 


Glame and Mot, 


- 


47 


Glame, description of. 


- 


9 


Glame, law of, as to Pul, 


- 


47 


God and vitality, - 


- 


939 


God, eternity of. 


- 


912 


God, existence of, - 


- 


1 


God, first idea of, - 


- 


4 


God, first idea of, changed, 


- 


4 


God, first knowledge of, - 


- 


993 


God, intentions of, - 


- 


124 


God, material in whole or part. 


- 


5 


God-nature, - - - - 


784 


,785 


God, personal description of, - 


- 


55 


Gods, pagan, - - - - 


- 


334 


God, substance of the body of, 


- 


56 


God, the author of good. 


- 


829 


God, what is, - - - - 


- 


4 


Good and bad, which is more p 


rev- 




alent? . - . - 


- 


87 


Good, appearances of, 


- 


913 


Good, evidences of. 


- 


730 


Goods at store, - - - 


- 


691 


Gossip and insanity, 


- 


442 


Gossip and malice. 


- 


474 


Governing Board, the, - 


- 


135 


Gough, ----- 


- 


478 


Government, - - - - 


- 


17 


Government, chief end of. 


- 


17 


Government of the Ideal City, 


- 


692 


Grades of crime, - - - 


- 


385 


Grades of diverse life. 


- 


576 


Grades of mind, 


- 


513 


Grave, the, - 


- 


645 


Gravity, action of, - 


- 


8,62 


Gravity, cessation of law of, - 


- 


8 


Gravity explained. 


166 


,170 


Gravity, operation of. 


- 


8 


Gravity, mystery of, 


- 


116 


Greatness, - - - - 


- 


621 


Greatness and low birth. 


- 


715 


Greenisli scum, 


- 


207 


Grief, 


- 


749 


Grinding, the, 


- 


769 


Growth and gravity. 


- 


168 


Growth by renewal. 


- 


376 


Growth from devs and angs, - 


- 


188 


Growth, how it proceeds, 


- 


147 


Growth, process of, 


- 


7 


Growth, steps of, - 


- 


158 


Growth, variation, - - - 


- 


823 



H 



Happiness, 982 

Happiness, 30 

Happiness, abject poverty com- 
patible with degree of, - - 30 
Happiness, circumstances necessary 

for perfect, ----- 30 
Happiness, its difference from con- 
tentment, ----- 30 
Happiness, physical, - - - 735 
Happiness, relation of wealth to, - 30 

Harmony, 798 

Harmony, ----- 29 

Hate, 20, 801 

Hate, animals free from, - - 20 

Hate, dishonesty prompts, - - 21 

Hate, Indians free from, - - 20 

Hate, origin of, - - - - 20 

Hate, pro[)ortion of, - - - 21 

Horrors of Devs, - - - - 230 

Health, - 31 

Health and soil, - - - - 664 

Health and water, - - - - 680 

Hearing, action of, - - - 10 

Hearing, sense of, - - - - 65 

Hearing, sense of, how created, - 10 

Heart labor, ----- 808 

Heart's response, the, - . - 76O 

Heart, the, ----- 627 

Heart, the ten of the, - - - 885 

Heat, - - - - - - 27 

Heat, analysis of, - - - - 153 

Heat, its relation to light, - - 28 

Heat, its relation to vegetable life, - 28 

Heat, mystery of, - - - - 119 

Heat, process of frictional, - - 28 

Heat, what is chemical, - - - 28 

Heaven, Kingdom of, - - - 100 

Heaven, meaning of word, - - 32 

Heaven on earth, - - - - 988 

Heaven, promise of, - - - 32 

Heaven, protection of, - - - 921 

Hebrew Gods, - - - - 383 

Hebrew theolojrv, - - - - 828 

Hell, after death, - - 941, 942, 943 

Hell and heaven, - - - - 804 

Hell on earth, - - - - 984 

Hereafter, knowledge of the, - - 99 

Hereafter, types of the, - - - 998 

Heredity, ----- 136 

Heredity in crime, - - - - 383 

Hermits, 809 

Heroic government, - - - 585 

Hidden evil, -_ - - - - 280 

Higher magnetism, . - - 139 

Highest profession, the, - - - 958 



e32 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



High yeast fermentation, 
Historians, - . . - 
History, beginning of, - 
History of cities, - - - 
History of creeds, - - - 
History, religious, - - - 
Holiness, . . . - 
Home, , - - - - 

Home fruits, - - - - 

Home, protection of, - 
Homer's soul-life, - - - 
Homes of the plain, 
Homicide for food, - ■ - 

Homicide, justifiable, 
Homicide, punishment of, 
Honest affluence, - - - 
Honesty among anti-racials, - 
Honesty and wealth. 
Honest man, the, - - - ■ 
Honesty, probability of, - 
Honesty, the policy of, - 
Honesty, the universal test, - 
Honesty, wealth comjjatible with, 
Honor to parents, - - - 
Horrors of war, - - - . 
Hours of toil, . - . . 

Hour, the last, . . - . 
Hovels, ------ 

How man came, - _ - 

How vegetation dies. 

Human bacteria, - - - 

Human being, - - - 

Human being, a, - 

Human body, how much identica 

with vegetation, - - - 
Human body, origin of, - 
Human devices, - - - 
Human duty, - - - - 

Human fiends, - - - 
Human forces, - - - 
Human heart, the, - - - 
Humanity in animals, 
Humanity, savage, - - - 
Human life, chart of. 
Human life, purpose of, to Creator, 
Human nature in cell-life. 
Human pigment, - - - 
Human race, age of, 
Human race, existence of, 
Human religion, - - - 
Human responsibility, - 
Hydrophobia, - - - 

Hysterics, - - - - 



Ice, 

Ice and distillation, 



■ 270 

■ 974 

■ 315 

■ 381 

■ 767 

- 350 

■ 755 

■ 1000 

■ 684 

■ 705 

3 

■ 728 
• 16 
14, 71 

■ 14 

- 391 

■ 559 

- 389 

■ 788 

■ 21 

■ 392 

■ 563 

■ 19 

■ 729 

■ 354 

■ 721 

■ 642 

■ 711 

■ 758 

- 833 

- 223 

1 

- 495 
1 

4 

- 12 

- 740 

- 781 

- 415 

- 537 

- 731 

- 569 

2 

- 885 

9 

- 209 

- 538 

- 410 

3 

- 779 

- 989 

- 251 

- 734 



172 

690 



Ideal City, practicability of the, - 651 

Ideal orchards, - - - - 684 

Ideal products, - - - . 671 

Ideal settlement, an, - - - 675 

Ideal water, 689 

Idiocy at birth, - - - - 498 

Idiot, impressions through senses of, 10 

Idiot, mental condilion of, - - 10 

Ignorance and conscience, - - 565 

111 nature and enmity, - - - 368 

Illusions, ----- 852 

Images of the brain, - - - 276 

Images, visual, - . - . 864 

Imbecility, ----- 554 

Immensity, mystery of, - - - 103 

Immigration, ----- 466 

Immigration, Chinese, - - - . 18 

Immigration, unrestricted, - - 18 

Immortal hope, - - - - 809 

Immortality of life, - - - 927 

Immortality, morning of, - - 911 

Immortality, reasons for, - - 32 

Immortal, the, - - . - 568 

Importation of foreigners, - - 587 

Importers, ----- 70O 

Impotence, chemical condition of, - 2 

Impregnation of plant-lil'e, - - 822 

Imprisonment, - - - - 15 

Improvement, - - - - 660 

Improvement of species, - - 406 

Impulses of crime, - - - - 360 

Inactivity, ----- 789 

Incitement to evil, - - - 399 

Inclusion, ----- 834 

Incomes, ----- 709 

Incongruities of thought, - - 309 

Incorrigibility, - - - - 15 

Increase, - - - - - 489 

Increase of Devs, - - - - 229 

Increase of glame, - - - - 832 

Increase, rapidity of, - - - 216 

Indestructible matter, - - - 338 

Indian belief, •- - - - 23 

Indifference, ----- 590 

Individuality of the species, - - 135 

Industries, how throttled, - - 712 

Infancy, 622 

Infection, ----- 205 

Inferiors, envy of, - - - - 76 

Inflexible justice, - - - - 431 

Influence at a distance, - - - 865 

Influences behind life, - - - 184 

Influences in the sun, - - - 327 

lufluences of food, - - - - 189 

Inherent good, - - - - 752 

Inherent truth, - - - - 566 

Innate religion, - . - - 311 

Inorganic matter, - - - - 137 



INDEX. 



533 



Insane, tlie condition of the, - 
Insanity from morbid tlioughts, 
Insanity, moral, - - - 
Insanity, responsibility of, 
Insanity, voluntary giving way 
Insects, tortures of. 
Inspiration, - - - - 
Inspiration, - - - - 
Inspiration, - - - - 
Insi)iration, rule of. 
Inspiration, source of. 
Inspired writings, - - - 
Instigation, the, - - - 
Instinct, . . . . 

Instinct in choice of foods. 
Integrity in business, 
Intellect and flesh. 
Intellect necessary to evil, 
Intellect, vegetable and animal, 
Jntelligence, alcoholic, - 
Intelligence and intellect. 
Intelligence, atomic, 
Intelligence, duality of, - 
•Intelligence, molecular, - 
Intelligence, the primary law, 
Intelligence, vegetable, - 
Intelligent cunning, 
Intelligent selection, 
Intense mentality, - - - 
Intention of creation, 
Intention of God, - - - 
Interest, conimoii, - - - 
Interference, - - - - 
Interior of the earth, 
Intermarriage, . . - 

Intermarriage, prevention of, ^- 
Intermediate world. 
Interpolations, . . - 
Invasion of life, . - - 
Inventions merely discoveries, 
Inventive minds, 
Investments, law of. 
Is crime a disease? 



Jail-bird, the, . - - 

Jehovah, derivation of, - 
Journalism, Sunday and daily, 

Joy and fact, - - - - 

Joys of age, - - - - 

Judge and justice, - - - 

Judicial minds, - . . 
Jupiter, derivation of, 

Just charity, - - - - 
Justice and mercy, 
Justice, escape from, 



of, - 



437 

438 

365 

15 

15 

■ - 262 

- 200 

- 32 

- 762 

- 776 

- 33 

1 

paoe 80 

-^ 1 

- 38 

- 604 

- 396 

- 398 

- 395 

- 278 

- 394 

- 186 

- 337 

- 163 

- 167 

- 11 

- 218 

- 949 

- 858 

- 400 

- 124 

- 676 

- 473 

- 175 

- 136 

- 18 

- 50 

- 777 

- 226 

- 343 

- 740 

- 710 

- 366 



- 899 

- 23 
441, 442 

- 735 

- 729 

- 694 

- 592 

- 23 

- 789 

- 694 

- 38 



K 



Killing birds for sport, - - - 16 

Killing of savage Indian, - - 16 

Kill, law of, universal, - - - 34 

Kircher and his microscope, - - 131 

Kle|jtomania, . . - - 3fi4 

Knife, the ten of the, - - - 885 

Knowledge, abstract, . - - 597 

Knowledge, concrete, . - - 598 

Knowledge hereafter, - - - 910 

Knowledge, human, - - - 80 

Knowledge of pain, - - - 510 

Knowledge, the true, - - - 599 

Korean devils, . - - - 454 

Korean tortures, - - - - 450 



Labor, ------ 658 

Labor, compulsory, - - - 19^ 

Labor, hours of, . - - - 721 

Labor problem, destiny of, - - 956 

Labor's reward, - - - - 705 

Lakes and reservoirs, - - - 682 

Land, 653 

Land cultivation, - - - - 665 

Large cities, ----- 674 

Larynx, created by design, - - 28 

Larynx, the, 83 

Last day, the, - . . - 641 ' 

Last hour, the, - - - - 642 

Laughter, cause of, - - - 735 

Law, absence of, - - - - 14 

Law and its origin, - - - 741 

Lawlessness is growing, - - - 456 

Law of decay, - - - - 919 

Law of growth, - - - - 188 

Lawyer, the, 967 

Lax 'laws, - - - - - 455 

Laziness, 802 

Laziness, ----- 39 

Ledontec, ----- 248 

Legalized prevention of crime, - 589 

Legal profession, the, - . - 968 

Legislation in churches, - - 723 

Legislators and bribes, - - - 713 

Leprosy, ----- 245 

Lessons from the Atoms, - - 134 

Lessons of Typhoid, - - - 239 

Liar, the, " - - - - - 798 

Libel, - - - _ - - - 15 

Libel, punishment of, - - - 16 

Life and its purposes, - - - 946 
Life, ten classes of beings and 

created, ----- 35 

Life, combinations of, - - - 212 

Life, crowded, . . '- . 656 



534 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Life food for life, - 

Life, forms of created, 

Life, impressions of. 

Life in the ovary, - 

Life, investigation of larger, 

Life, lowest form of, 

Life, minutest processes of, 

Life, motive of. 

Life of eunuchs. 

Life of the soul, 

Life on earth, perpetuated. 

Life originates in a cell. 

Life, poem of, 

Life previous to birth, - 

Life, seat of, - - - . - 

Life, spirit of, . . . - 

Life, three requisites of, - 

Life, unburied, . . . _ 

Light, - _ 

Light, analysis of, - 

Light and phosphorus, - - 

Light, color and sight, - - - 

Light, difference between sound and, 

Light, generation of, . . . 

Light, how destroyed, - - - 

Lightning, poisoning effect of, 

Light, what is it ? - 

Limit of food, . . . . 

Limit of life, - - - - - 

Limits of species, - - - - 

Limit to divisibility, - . - 

Liquors, fermentation of. 

Living, ------ 

Loafing, - . - - - 

Location of homes, . - _ 

Location of the mental faculties. 
Lockjaw, - - - - 

Love, ------ 

Love and animalism, - - - 
Love and passion, - - - - 

Love, difference between affection 
and, ------ 

Loveliness, - - - - . 

Love of animals, - - - - 

Love of human mother for offspring. 
Love of lioness for young. 
Love, post marital love, - - - 
Low animal order, - - - - 

Lowest life, 

Low ferment, - - - - - 
Low mental pretence, - - - 
Lynching, - . - - - 

M 

Machinery of mind and body, 
Madness and soul-life, - - - 
Madness, origin of, - _ - 



- 34 
1 

- 479 

- 487 

- 27 

- 211 

- 26 

- 49 

- 588 

- 93 

- 85 

- 126 
page 76 

- 482 

- 732 

- 733 

- 127 

- 662 

- 27 

- 150 

- 528 

- 84 
28 
25 
27 

264 
80 
221 
826 
404 
138 
267 
657 
467 
664 
508 
247 
36 
570 
573 



246 



36 

791 

36 

34 

34 

37 

837 

211 

271 

563 

464 



366 
497 
252 



Magnetic vision, - - - _ I4l 

Magnetism excites 2:)ul-glow, - - 140 

Magnifying brains, - - - §55 

Majority of deaths, - - - 940 

Man, a free moral agent, - 21, 39 

Man, and cell-life, - - - - 215 

Man and evil, - - . - 347 

Man and fate, - - - - 926 

Man as we find him, - - - 733 

Man, existence of, apart from earth, 8 

Man, extinction of, - - - 298 

Man, his drift toward nature, - 39 

Man his own enemy, - - - 306 

Mania and death, - - - - 639 

Man invents nothing, - - - 343 

Man of the earth, - - - - 8 

Man, primitive, . - - - 290 

Man's divisions, - - - . 816 

Man's food, ----- 178 

Man's free agency, - - - - 780 

Man's origin, 758 

Man's place in Nature, - - - 894 

Man's station midway in life, - 948 

Man's superiority, - - - - 49 

Man's surface nature, - - - 349 

Man, the creature of his own choice, 90 

Man, theories of his existence, - 12 

Man, the origin of the first, - -• 314 

Man, the result of conflict, - - 401 

Margin, the narrow, - - . 943 

Marriage and divorce, - - - 583 

Marriage, bird, - - - - 35 

Marriage, flower, - - - - 36 

Marriage, human, - - - - 35 

Marriage, human, - - - - 88 

Marriage, its purpose, - - - 582 

Marriage of widow or widower, - 36 

Marriage, primary object promoting, 37 

Marrying, man's duty in, - - 37 

Material brain, the, . . - 838 

Material shape, . - - - 817 

Maternity, ----- 484 

Matter always existed, - - - 5 

Matter and its destiny, - - - 922 

Matter, government of, - - - 42 

Matter indestructible, - - - 338 

Matter, inorganic, - - - - 137 

Matter, obedient to law of necessity, 12 

Matter, value of, to spiritual, - 6 

Maturity, -_ - - - - 624 

Meat-eating animals, - - - 179 

Medulla oblongata, - . . 516 

Meetings of jurists, - . - 809 

Memory, ----- 99 

Memory, rule of, - - - - 888 

Mental colors, - . . - 856 

Mental concealment, - - - 397 

Mental diagram, . - - - 861 



Mental emotion, . - - 
]\Ientiil entity, ... 

Mental illusions, - - - 
Mental intensity, - 
Mental life, force of, 
Mental power of the child, 
Mercy, ----- 
Mercy, accident of natural, 
INIercy and justice, 
Mercy, philosophy of. 
Mere humanity, - - - 
Metamorphosis, 

Meters, 

Method of capital punishment, 
Method of government, - 
Miasma and malaria. 
Microscope and Pul-glow, 
Microscopes, origin of, - 
Microscopic brain-power, 
Microscopic foods, - - - 
Middle classes, the, 
Milk as food, - - - - 
Mind and food, - . - 
Mind and matter, - 
Mind, destiny of the. 
Mind energy, - - - - 
Mind growth, - - - - 
Mind, influence over soul. 
Mind in the flesh, - 
Mind, mystery of, - 
Mind originates wickedness, - 
Mind, where located, 
Mineral in food, - - - 
Ministry, the, - - - ! 

Miracles, - . - - 

Miracles and chemistry, - 
Miracles and natural causes, - 
Miracles explained thi'ough natut 

laws, 

Miracles, inexplicable, - 
Miracles of the Bible, - 
Miracles, purpose of. 
Miracles, use of, . - - 
Missionary work, - 
Missions, - . - - 

Malaria, - - . - 

Molecule, chemical. 
Molecule, existence of, - 
Molecules and atoms. 
Moon, condition of. 
Moral battle-grounds, 
Moral deficiency, - - - 
Moral insanity, - - - 
Morality, duration of, 
Morality, extremes of, 
Morality, where it thrives, 
Moral nourishment. 
Moral scale, the, - - - 





INDEX. 




635 




891 


Morbid appetites, - 




- 435 


. 


510 


Morbid minds. 


- 


- 438 


- 


852 


Mormon ism, - - - 


- 


- 124 


. 


858 


Mormon origin. 


- 


- 759 


. 


839 


Morning of Immortality, 


- 


- 911 


- 


504 


Mot, - - - ' - 


- 


47,48 


- 


38 


Mother and father in parent! 


igpj 


- 484 


- 


39 


Mother-love. - 


- 


- 570 


- 


694 


Motion and vibration, 


- 


- 151 


- 


38 


Motive, - - - - 


- 


- 743 


- 


844 


Motives of theology, 


- 


- 753 


. 


502 


Murder, - - - - 


- 


- 87 


- 


937 


Murderous emotions, 


- 


- 898 


- 


445 


Music, - - - - 


- 


- 794 


. 


693 


Music, uses of, - 


- 


- 29 


- 


677 


Muscle and brain. 


- 


- 707 


- 


142 


Musquitoes, sting of. 


- 


- 13 


- 


131 


Mysteries, general, - 


- 


- 101 


- 


854 


Mystery of daily life. 


- 


- 744 


. 


725 


Myth and belief, 


- 


- 319 


- 


728 


Myth and tradition. 


- 


- 316 


- 


263 


Mythology, origin of. 


- 


- 23 


- 


525 








- 


191 








- 


880 


N 






. 


866 








- 


534 








- 


9 


Names of evil origin. 


- 


- 457 


- 


509 


National bacteria, - 


- 


- 379 


- 


113 


National crimes. 


- 


- 353 


- 


9 


Natural dangers, - 


- 


- 284 


- 


508 


Natural good. 


- 


- 388 


- 


192 


Natural laws, special adjustment 


of, 7, 61 


59 


,960 


Natural mother-love. 


- 


- 570 


- 


23 


Natural principles. 


- 


- 785 


- 


745 


Nature and crime, - 


- 


- 196 


- 


757 


Nature, cruel laws of, 


- 


7 


il 




Nature of ])arentage. 


- 


- 586 


- 


24 


Nature of spores, - 


- 


- 274 


- 


24 


Nature of universal force, 


- 


- 820 


- 


777 


Natures in marriage, 


- 


- 583 


- 


24 


Nature's still. 


- 


- 681 


- 


41 


Needs of life, - 


- 


- 669 


- 


73 


Negro, depredations of the. 


- 


- 18 


- 


772 


Negroes, - , - 


- 


- 553 


- 


255 


Negro problem, 


- 


18,73 


- 


7,60 


Negro question, how settled, 


- 


- 589 


- 


7 


Negro religion. 


- 


- 558 


- 


132 


Nervous system. 


- 


- 10 


- 


42 


Neutrality of venoms, - 


- 


- 283 


- 


478 


New existence, 


- 


- 663 


- 


560 


Newness of the earth, 


- 


- 409 


- 


365 


New profession, the, 


- 


- 972 


- 


358 


Newspapers, - - - 


- 


- 797 


- 


356 


News scavengers, - 


- 


- 440 


- 


426 


News, the, 


- 


- 727 


- 


783 


New Testament, 


- 


- 761 


- 


40 


Nick-names, - - - 


- 


- 457 



536 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Ninth principle, the, 
Noblemen, 
Non-nucleus cell, - 
Normal experiments, 
Normal transference, 
Novels, - - - 
Nucleus in the cell, 
Nucleus of the child, 



- 796 

- 666 

- 133 

- 862 

- 861 

- 790 

- 130 

- 485 



Objective religion, - 


- 


- 765 


Obscenity, 


- 


- 468 


Observation, - 


- 


- 593 


Occupations, - 


- 


954, 955 


Offences, public, 


- 


- 695 


Offences, small, 


- 


- 446 


Old age. 


- 


- 687 


Old and New Testamen 


ts, - 


- 300 


Old cheese. 




- -iQb 


Old time obscurities. 


- 


- 744 


Omens and Friday, 


- 


- 614 


Omnipotence, 


- 


4 


Omnipresence, 


- 


- 5,46 


One man. 


- 


- 747 


Operation of gravity, 


- 


- 170 


Opportunities, 


- 


- 951 


Optical contortions, 


- 


- 277 


Optic nerve, the, - 


- 


- 151 


Orbital revolution, - 


- 


- 169 


Orbits, laws of, 


- 


- 157 


Orchards, 


- 


- 684 


Order of creation, - 


- 


- 291 


Organized good. 


- 


- 963 


Organized science, - 


- 


- 860 


Original variation, - 


- 


- 160 


Origin and destiny, 


- 


- 197 


Origin of animals, - 


- 


- 287 


Origin of emotions, 


- 


- 736 


Origin of facts, 


- 


- 813 


Origin of life. 


- 


- 480 


Origin of life. 


- 


- 827 


Origin of man, mystery 


of, - 


- 105 


Origin of the meat habit, 


- 180 


Origin of the nucleus, 


- 


- 130 


Origin of the skin, - 


- 


- 540 


Origin of the sky and suns. 


- 345 


Origin of the soul, - 


- 


- 824 


Other worlds, are they peopled? 


- 94 


Our destiny, mystery ol 


■", 


- 108 


Our existences. 


- 


- 999 


Outer darkness. 


- 


- 45 


Outlines of destiny. 


- - - 


- 810 


Outward morality, - 


- 


- 562 


Ovarian humanity. 


- 


- 487 


Ovum, potentialities of 


the, - 


- 128 



Paddling, ----- 452 

Pagan gods, ----- 334 

Paganism, - - - - 23, 78 

Pain, after amputation, - - - 510 

Pain and death, - - . - 632 

Pain transference, - - - - 863 

Pangs of conscience, - - - 565 

Parentage, avoidance of, - - 37 

Parentage of criminals, - - - 686 

Paris experiments, - - - 869 

Passions, the, ----- 884 

Past, channels of, - - - - 424 

Paternity, ----- 483 

Paternitv, chemical condition of, - 2 

Peace, death of, - - - - 992 

Peculiarities of Glame, - - - 147 

Pensions, ----- 705 

Pensions and professions, - - 716 

Perception abnormal, - - - 857 

Pertect morality, - - - - 92 

Personal devil, - - - - 300 

Personality, ----- 477 

Personality of Satan, - - 914, 916 
Personal statement, - - page 79 

Phenomena, ----- 528 

Phenomena of death, - - - 933 

Phenomena of sight, . - - 142 

Philosophy, ----- 38 

Philosophy and instinct, - - 52 

Philosophy of crueltv, - - - 296 

Philosophy of death,^ - - - 649 

Philosophy of evil, - - _ 279 

Philosophy of living,' - - - 657 

Philosophy of punishment, - - 427 

Philosophy of taxation, - - - 708 

Phosphates, mind dependent on, - 9 

Phosphorescence, - - - - 528 

Phosphorous and intelligence, - 874 

Phosphorous and mind, - - - 526 

Phosphorus, its relation to life, - 25 

Phosphorus, origin of, - - - 25 
Phosphorus resembles aurora bore- 

alis, ------ 26 

Physical emotions, . - - 893 

Physical society, - - - - 860 

Phj'sical soul-life, - - - - 836 

Physician, the, . - - - 966 

Physiology, ----- 818 

Physiology of alcoholism, - - 387 

Pilgrim fathers and money, - - 672 

Pistol, the ten of the, - - - 885 

Places of the hereafter, - - - 988 

Plain life, ----- 728 

Plain people, - - - - - 425 

Plain people, the, - - - - 728 

Planets, dissolution of, - - - 97 



INDEX. 



637 



PLuiets, lives affected by the, 


22 


Plan of proof, 


- 


- 814 


Plan of salvation, - 


- 


- 807 


Plan of the Ideal City, 


- 


- 650 


Piantiiig- orcliards, - 


- 


- 685 


Plant life and man, 


- 


- 52 


Pleading, 


- 


- 971 


Plenty and poverty, 


- 


- 701 


Poem of life. 


- 


page 76 


Poi-;oned by lightning, 


- 


- 264 


Poisons, 


- 


- 69 


Poisons, activities are, 


- 


234, 235 


Poisons, excretive, 


- 


- 236 


Poisons, growth of. 


- 


- 13 


Policy of honesty, - 


- 


- 392 


Politics and citizenship. 


, 


- 469 


Poor-honses, - 


- 


- 702 


Population, floating, 


- 


- 715 


Porcupine, the, 


- 


- 281 


Possession, quarrel for. 


- 


- 34 


Poverty and church duties, - 


- 721 


Poverty, as a crime, 


- 


- 672 


Poverty, cause of, - 


- 


- 74 


Poverty, chief cause of. 


- 


- 19 


Practical religion, - 


- 


- 809 


Prayer, - - - 


- 


- 808 


Preacher, the, 


- 


- 965 


Preaching, true, 


- 


- 962 


Precocity, 


- 


- 505 


Preferred occupations. 


- 


- 955 


Preferred professions. 


- 


- 957 


Prehistoric man, 


- 


- 68 


Pre-natal life. 


- 


- 482 


Preparations for death. 


- 


- 945 


Preponderance of evil, 


- 


- 302 


Present, the ever, - 


- 


6 


Prevention of crime, 


- 


- 429 


Primitive fall, the, - 


- 


- 320 


Primitive man. 


- 


- 290 


Principles of the Ideal City, - 


- 653 


Principles underneath life. 


- 584 


Private devotion, - 


- 


- 809 


Problems of cholera. 


- 


- 231 


Problems, the major, 


- 


- 51 


Problem, the temperance, 


- 718 


Process of duty. 


- 


- 782 


Process of fate. 


- 


- 924 


Process of thinking, 


- 


- 877 


Producers, 


- 


- 703 


Products, ideal, 


- 


- 671 


Profanity, 


- 


- 465 


Professions, - 


- 


- 954 


Professions, dishonest, 


- 


- 970 


Profession, the highest, 


- 


- 958 


Profession, the new. 


- 


- 972 


Progress of consumption, 


- 242 


Progress without envy, 


- 


- 21 


Proof of dangers, - 


- 


- 402 



Proof of man's oriirin, . - - 317 

Proofofthe Evil One, - - - 331 

Propositions of honesty, - - 990 

Propriety of capital punishment, - 433 

Prosperity, chief cause of, - - 19 

Prosperity, source of, - - - 673 

Protection of Heaven, - - - 921 

Protection of man, . - - 738 

Protestants, ----- 768 

Protoplasm, ----- 12 

Protoplasm, animal and vegetable, 126 

Protoplasm essential to Hie, - - 129 

Protoplasm, mystery of, - - - 112 

Puberty, cause of, - - - - 574 

Public endurance, - - - - 727 

Publicitv of execution, - - - 434 

Public offences, - - - - 695 

Pul, ------ 47 

Pul-glow, ----- 139 

Pul-meter, the, - - - - 143 

Pul, the peculiarities of, - - 148 

Punishment, capital, - - - 432 

Punishment, effect of, - - - 362 

Punishment of animal for killing, - 34 

Pure water, ----- 682 

Purgatory, beliefs for and asrainst, - 944 

Purists, - - - ^ - - 809 

Purity of the ministry, - - - 960 

Purposeless atoms, - - - 339 

Purpose of creation, - - - 299 

Purpose of lightning, - - - 285 

Putrefaction, early theories, - - 203 



Q 



Quarrels, fomenting, - - - 969 

Question, the race, - - - 557 

Question, the trusi, - - - 713 

Quickening of the child, - - 493 



Race, a chosen, . - - - 578 

Race hatred, ----- 557 

Race man, the, - - - . 882 

Races as marked, - - - - 546 

Races, extermination of, - - 579 

Races, intermarriage of, - - 18 

Races, sufferings of, - - - 292 

Races, the great, - - - - 87 

Racial color, ----- 541 

Racial divisions, - - - - 550 

Readiness for life, - - - - 600 

Rain, 681 

Rapidity of increase, - - - 216 

Ray of light, mystery of, - - 104 

Ray of sunlight, origin of, - - 143 

Readjustment of society, - - 352 



638 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Receiver experiment, the, 


- 


821 


Reciprocity, - - - 


- 


439 


Reckless impulses, 


- 


371 


Recognition of emotions. 


- 


883 


Reflection of other life, - 


- 


346 


Reform and tlie devil's opposition. 


457 


Refraction, - - - 


- 


27 


Re-incarnation, 


- 


847 


Relations, . - - 


- 


594 


Relationship, universal, 


- 


819 


Religion, adaptation to every age, - 


92 


Religion, chart of, - 


- 784 


,785 


Religion, code of, - 


- 


784 


Religion, innate, 


- 


311 


Religion, means of, to impi 


ress. 


23 


Religion, mystery of. 


- 


124 


Religion, objective. 


- 


765 


Religion, practical. 


- 


809 


Religions, agreement of, 


- 


58 


Religions, necessary origin 


of. 


6,58 


Religion, superstition in origin of, - 


22 


Religion, the dark. 


- 


771 


Religion varieties of, 


23, 57 


Religious history, - 


- 


350 


Religious tortures. 


- 


421 


Religious unity, 


- 


323 


Renewal of tlie body, 


- 


374 


Reproduction, 


- 


111 


Reproduction and cell-division. 


128 


Repulsion, 


- 


7 


Reputation, - 


- 


606 


Reputation, injury to. 


- 


15 


Requisites of education. 


- 


719 


Reservoirs, . _ - 


- 


682 


Residue of fire. 


- 


152 


Resolution, - - - 


- 


809 


Resources of government. 


- 


716 


Respiration, - - - 


- 


518 


Responsibility for disease. 


- 


533 


Rest in freezing, 


- 


176 


Revelations, - - - 


- 


855 


Revenge and crime, 


- 


367 


Revolution, - - - 


- 


7 


Revolution of Atoms, 


- 


146 


Reward, 


- 


961 


Riches, - - - - 


- 


603 


Rights of all classes, 


- 


706 


Roman Catholics, - 


- 


768 


Root growth. 


- 


66 


Root nurture, 


- 


685 


Rule of omens. 


- 


616 


Rule of guidance, - 


- 


775 


S 






Sabbath, tlie. 


_ 


722 


Salvation, . . . 


- 


91 


Salvation, 


- 


807 



Salvation, . - . 

Sand punishment, - 

Satan and hell, 

Satan and the Bible, 

Satan, deatli of, 

Satan, destruction of, 

Satan, eternity of, - 

Savage food, - - - - 

Savage men, existence of, 

Scale of civilization, 

Scliemes, the three. 

Schooling tlie emotions, 

Science of fermentation. 

Science, the latest. 

Scrofula, . - . . 

Scum, bacterial, . - _ 

Seasons, cause of, - 

Seat of life, - - - - 

Seat of the emotions. 

Seclusion, - - - - 

Second conclusion, 

Second lives, - - - - 

Second principle, - - - 

Seed-germs, survival of. 

Seed, inherited or spontaneous. 

Seed life in plants, 

Seeds of reproduction, - 

Selection, intelligent. 

Selfish classes, - - . 

Selfishness, - - - - 

Selfishness, - - - - 

Self knowledge of crimes, 

Sensationalism, - . . 

Sensations of death. 

Senators and bribes, 

Sense of pain, . - - 

Senses and the stomach. 

Senses, the five, aid in acquiri 

food, ----- 
Sensitiveness, . - - 

Sensualism, - - - : 
Separation of Satan, 
Serfs and slaves, - - 
Serpents, existence of, - 
Seventh principle. 
Seven years' crimes. 
Sewerage, . - - - 
Sexes, comparative morality of. 
Shades of skin color, 
Shakespeare's soul-life, - 
Shapes, complex, - - - 
Shield, the ten of the, - 
Sight, effect of use on, - 
Sight, is it necessary to the soul ? 
Sin and its place, - - - 
Sin. proportion of, - 
Sin, the first, - - - - 
Sin without envy, - - - 



914. 



991 
453 

985 
763 
340 
918 
915 
183 
12 
68 
754 
889 
269 
260 
257 
207 



- 732 

- 734 

- 809 

- 806 

- 53 

- 787 

5 
2 

- 531 

- 125 

- 949 

- 706 

- 89 

- 607 

- 384 

- 459 
986, 987 

- 713 

- 510 

- 46 
ng 

- 11 

- 872 

- 571 

- 916 

- 711 

- 13 

- 792 

- 373 

- 440 

- 356 

- 543 

3 

- 162 

- 885 

- 12 

- 45 

- 809 

- 21 

- 739 

- 21 



INDEX. 



539 



Six steps of growth, - - - 153 

Sixteeutli principle, - - - 803 

Sixth principle, . - - . 791 

Skin-coh)rs, cause of, - - - 541 

Skin-color of the races, - - 547 

Skin, texture of, - - - - 540 

Sky and sun, ori.iijin of, - - - 345 

Slander, 15 

Slander, punishment of, - - 16 

Slavery, ------ 359 

Slavery, 556 

Sleep and thought, - - - 635 

Sleep, cause of, - - - - 638 

Slum life, ----- 378 

Small fruits, ----- 686 

Small offences, - - - . 44(5 

Small pox, 254 

Small worlds, wars in, - - - 224 

Smell, chemical change of, - - 10 

Snakes, seen by drunkard, - - 44 
Social inequali'ty, - - - 658, 707 

Social problem, the, - - . 352 

Social selfishness, - - - - 706 

Sodom, a type of wickedness, - 349 

Soil and disease, - - - - 688 

Soil and health, - - - - 664 

Soil, tiller of, - - - - - 666 

Solace in death, - - - - 909 

Solar system, 63 

Solar system, laws governing, - 43 

Snlar systems, government of, - 42 

Solution of the tramp questi(»n, - 698 

Somnambulism, - - - - 637 

Song, origin of, - - - - 29 

Sores, ------ 256 

Sorrow, 895 

Sorrow, ------ 608 

Soul, 1,46 

Soul-attributes, - - - - 577 

Soul circles, 822 

Soul, effect of moral code on, - - 33 

Soul-electricitj', - - - - 86 

Soul growth. ----- 534 

Soul in matter, - . - . 193 
Soul leaving body, - - - 46, 47 

Soul-life everywhere present, - - 36 

Soul-life, evidence of, - - - 43 

Soul-life dependent on matter, - 46 
Soul-life hereafter, - - 32, 43 
Soul of offspring part of parent's 

soul-life, ----- 3 

Soul of the human life, - - - 842 

Soul, origin of, - - . - 824 

Soul, passage from body, - - 96 

Soul possibility, - - - - 567 

Soul, co-extensive with body, - - 1, 46 
Souls that must eventually commit 

crime, ----- 3 



Soul-substance, how affected, - - 46 
Soul, when born, - - - - 494 
Sound and light, - - - - . 83 
Sound, a vibratory movement, - 65 
Sound, would it exist without hear- 
ing, - 10 

Source of prosperity, - . . (573 

Space, frontiers of, - - - - 850 

Space, mystery of, - - - - 102 

Spaces in snuill worlds, - - - 225 
Space, war in, . . - 325, 326 

Span of life, ----- 431 

Species, diversity of, - - - 405 

Species, im])rovemcnt of, - - 406 

Species, limits within the, - - 404 

Specific germ, - - - . 205 

Spirit of life, 733 

Spirits and sjjiritualism, - - - 997 

Spiritual doubles, - - - - 575 

Spiritual, value of, without matter, 5 

Spontaneous telepathy, - - - 865 

Spontaneous theory, the, - - 253 
Spore habits, - - - - 273, 274 

Spores, - 272 

Spurious in religion, the, - - 756 

Stars, lives affected by, - - - 22 

Star, the ten of the, ' - - - 885 

Starvation and justice, - - - 699 

Statesmanshij), - - - - 952 

Statesmanship, needs of, - - 73 

Stature, spiritual, affected by mind, 9 

Steam, ------ 173 

Steps in flower growth, - - - 532 

Still, nature's, - - - - (381 

Stores, ------ 691 

Strangling, ----- 443 

Strikes and enn^ity, - - - 370 

Students, talk with our, - - - 124 

Success, ------ 601 

Suffering and misery, - - . 401 

Suffering of primitive man, - - 292 

Sufferings of barbarism, - - 416 

Sufferings of hell, - - - - 943 

Suffocation, ----- 449 

Suicides, ----- 981 

Sumptuous life, - - - - 728 

Sun battles, ----- 335 

Sunday journalism, - - - 441 

Sun forces, ----- 336 

Sun is parent of the planets, - - 157 

Sun, its two influences, - - - 327 

Sun, origin of, - . - - 155 

Suns and their destiny, - - - 97 

Sunshine, analysis, - - - 149 

Sunshine brings Atoms to the earth, 154 

Sun, war in, - - - - - 328 

Supernatural, the, - - - - 746 

Superstition, ----- 22 



540 



HOME COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY. 



Superstition, ----- 611 

Superstition among ignorant classes, 566 

Superstition and reason, - - 77 

Superstition, origin of, - - - 22 

Supplies of life, - - - - 670 

Support, - - - - - 720 

Supremacy of evil, - _ - - 348 

Supreme Powers, - - - - 198 

Surface nature of man, - - - 349 

Surplus wealth, - - - - 795 



Taste, protection to the stomach, - 11 

Tastes, ------ 950 

Taxation, - - - - 17, 73 

Taxes, ------ 7O8 

Tax, income, ----- 709 

Tax of a corporation, - - - 714 

Teachers, ----- 973 

Telepathy, 865 

Telepathy explained, - - - 870 

Temper, ----- 38 

Temperament and color, - - 545 

Temperenee problem, the, - - 718 

Tendencies in life, - - - - 90 

Tenement houses, - - - - 711 

Tenth principle, - - - - 797 

Test of conscience, - - - - 565 

Test of humanity, - - - - 561 
Teton us, - - . - 246, 247 

Theft, ----- 447 
Theological creeds, - - 766, 767 

Theology, ----- 764 

Theory, the Atomic, - - . 138 

Theory, the Darwinian, - - - 403 

Theosophy, 812 

Thinking, ----- 524 

Thinking energy, - - - - 841 

Thinking, how it proceeds, - - 877 

Third conclusion, - - - - 807 

Third principle, - - - - 788 

Thirst, tortures of, - - - - 417 

Thirteen, effect of, - - - - 617 

Thirteenth principle, - - - 800 

Thought and death, - - - 634 

Thought, enlargement of, - - 58 

Thought power, - - - - 875 

Thought, process of, - - - 9 
Thought, train of, - - - - 9, 61 

Thought transference, - - - 859 

Tliought waves, - - - - 876 

Threats, - - - . . 753 

Three facts of the universe, - - 341 

Three life-functions, - - - 436 

Three possibilities, - - - 904 

Threshold of the unknown, - - 51 

Throttled industries, - - - 712 

Thumb-screw, the, - - - 422 



Time, ----- 
Tissue of the brain. 

Titles, 

Toil and society, - - - 
Tolerance of evil, - - - 
Tools of living, - _ . 
Tortures by insects. 
Tortures of life, - - - 
Tortures, I'eligious, 
Touch, sense of, - - - 
Towns and crime, - - - 
Tracing the mind, 
Tradition, Hebrevi-, 
Trained honesty, - - - 
Tramp question, solution of, - 
Tramps, - - . . 

Tramps and homes, 
Translucency, . . . 

Transmitting crime, 
Transparency, - - - 

Treason, . - - - 

Tree, crimes of, - 
Tree, life checked in a, - 
Tree, revivifying of dead. 

Trees, 

Trees, how tliey die. 

Tribal belief, 

Triumph of man, - - - 

True knowledge, - - - 

True, the, - 

Trusts, ----- 

Tuberculosis, - 240, 241, 

Tumors, - - . - 

Twelfth Principle, 

Two divisions of the races. 

Type of man, - - - 

Types of the hereafter, - 

Typhoid germs, - - - 

u 



- 647 

- 873 

- 715 

- 704 

- 471 

- 661 

- 262 

- 414 

- 421 
11,67 

- 382 

- 525 

- 828 

- 564 

- 698 
19, 70 

- 696 

- 27 

- 377 
27,81 

- 444 

- 34 

- 47 

- 47 
684, 685 

- 93 

- 848 

- 806 

- 599 

- 668 

- 460 
242, 243 

- 256 

- 799 

- 550 

- 318 

- 998 

- 238 



Ulcers, - - - - 


- 


- 256 


Ultimate composition of matter. 


- 137 


Ultimate particle, the, - 


- 


- 138 


Unburying, - - - 


- 


- 662 


Unconsciousness, - 


- 


- 57 


Unfortunates, the, - 


- 


- 699 


Unhappiness, is it necessary, 


- 


- 31 


Uninspired interpolations. 


- 


- 778 


Union of intelligence. 


- 


- 822 


Union of souls. 


- 


- 88 


Unity of religion, - 


- 


- 323 


Universal force, 


- 


- 820 


Universal relationship, - 


- 


- 819 


Universal soul, the, 


- 


- 818 


Universe, end of, - 


- 


- 925 


Universe, three facts of, - ■ 


- 


- 341 


University education, 


- 


- 696 


Unworthy souls. 


- 


- 93 



INDEX. 



541 



Vacuum experiment, 
Vugrants, im])risonment of, - 
Variation, original. 
Vegetable angs. 
Vegetable decay, - 
Vegetable man, 
Vegetation, - - - - 
Vegetation, destiny of, - 
Vegetation, how it dies, - 
Vegetation, sins of. 
Vegetation, steps in. 
Vegetation, tendencies in, 
Venom, .... 

Vested rights, . . . 

Visitations, - - - - 
Visual images, . - - 
Vitality and atoms, 
Vitality at large, - - - 
Vitality of protoplasm, - 
Vital molecules, multiplying, 
Vital path, the, - - - 
Vital spark, mystery of the, - 
Vital success, - - - - 
Voice and sound, - - - 
Voting, deprivation of the rights 



Vultures, 



w 



Wages and strikes. 
Wall Street, - 
Wandering vitality, 
War, - - - 
Warfare, 

War for possession, 
War, horrors of. 
War in space. 
War in the sun. 
Warnings of dansrer. 



- 821 

- 19 

- 160 

- 187 

- 182 
88, 517 

- 1, 26 

- 98 

- 833 

- 33 

- 177 

- 26 
282, 283 

- 710 

- 995 

- 864 

- 132 

- 928 

- 129 

- 131 

- 935 

- 110 

- 602 

- 83 
of, 

17,73 

- 797 



470 
463 
928 
619 
808 
35] 
354 
325 
328 
296 



Warnings of death, 


- 


630 


Waste of ages, 


- 


408 


Watching, - - - - 


- 


808 


Water, - - 


- 


679 


Water, weight of, - 




9, 61 


Way to immortality. 


- 


809 


Weakness, - - . - 


- 


629 


Weakness from intermarriage. 


- 


258 


Wealth and honesty. 


75, 


,389 


Wealth by accident. 


- 


22 


Wealth, limit of, - 


- 


17 


Weeds, ----- 


- 


677 


Weeds and devs, 


260, 


, 261 


Well water, - - - - 


- 


680 


Wesley ism, - - - - 


- 


478 


What cholera teaches, - 


- 


232 


What the brain is, - - - 


- 


507 


What we are. 


- 


190 


What we shall know, 


- 


910 


When the soul takes existence, 


- 


500 


Where morality thrives, 


- 


426 


Whiskey and youth. 


- 


718 


White, what is ? - 


- 


29 


Wholeness of the mind. 


- 


511 


Why we die, mystery of. 


- 


107 


Why we live, mystery of, 


- 


106 


Wilfulness, - - - - 


- 


15 


Willing game, the, 


- 


861 


Wine and home, - - - 


- 


718 


Women, cruelty of,- 


- 


355 


Wonder life, - - - - 


- 


523 


Work, ----- 


19 


,964 


Work and poverty. 


- 


672 


Workers and non-workers, 


- 


720 


Worlds, destiny of. 


- 


94 


Worlds, tendency of, 




5,42 


Wrongs, per se, - - . 


3 


2,87 


Y 






Years and their burdens, 


- 


729 


Yellow tubercles, - 


- 


241 


Youth, ----- 


- 


623 






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